


Tethered Memories

by HiddenBookShelf



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angry Mickey Mouse, Axel & Roxas Friendship (Kingdom Hearts), Axel Makes Mistakes (Kingdom Hearts), Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), F/M, Gen, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - Freeform, Parent Axel (Kingdom Hearts), Parent Goofy (Disney), Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas Is So Done (Kingdom Hearts), Sora Is a Ray of Sunshine (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28703151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenBookShelf/pseuds/HiddenBookShelf
Summary: Shunned and tossed away to wander alone in the darkness, Oswald the Rabbit has finally garnered enough power and has found the perfect opportunity to strike against the King, and his brother, Mickey Mouse.With Sora's restoration process halted before it had a chance to finish, and Roxas forcefully torn from the simulated Twilight Town, Riku is forced to hunt down the Nobodies in order to complete the process of regaining Sora's memory. But he is unaware of the Nothing looming in the space between Light and Shadow. A place where no one should tread, and those who do should remain alone and Forgotten.
Relationships: Axel & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Donald Duck & Goofy & Mickey Mouse & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Donald Duck & Goofy & Roxas & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Mickey Mouse & Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	1. From the Realm of Lost Memories

> Chapter One: From the Realm of Lost Memories

_The worst pain in the heart isn’t to be alone, but to be forgotten by a world you cannot forget…_

_I will not be Forgotten._

_~Twilight Town~_

After all this time, it seemed almost poetic that this would be where they were keeping him. Axel clenched his fists as he looked up at the familiar mansion. He inhaled and released a long breath. He was tasked with bringing his friend back into the fold, and if that didn’t work…

He shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that right now. It would work. It _had_ to.

“What’s your plan?”

Axel flinched and spun around at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. He hadn’t been expecting anyone, and he didn’t see the speaker at first until his gaze fell a little to reveal a short person in a dark purple, almost black, cloak. The hood over the figure’s head came to a point at the front, and there were intricate black patterns of chains on the sleeves that were almost lost in the darkness of the purple fabric.

Axel crossed his arms. He had never seen that design before and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Who are you?”

The figure shrugged. “No one you would know.” The voice was distinctly masculine, and adult, dashing Axel’s theory that he was looking at a child.

“Right.” He shook his head. “Anyway, my plan doesn’t concern you.”

“Do you even have one?”

Axel wrinkled his nose at the distasteful comment. “Of course I do. He’ll remember me.”

“He won’t,” the cloaked figure said, crossing his own arms. “Memories are fickle things.”

“What would you know about it?”

“More than you think,” he said, his voice suddenly becoming distant. There was a moment of silence before he motioned to the mansion. “If you go in there, you will fail.”

Axel scoffed.

“Allow me to help get your friend out of there. They are expecting you to come, but they are not expecting _me.”_

Axel eyed the figure before him carefully, tracing the chains on his sleeves with his eyes. “And what exactly _are_ you? A Nobody?”

He shook his head. “I am neither Nobody nor Somebody.”

“Heartless, then.”

“Depends on who you ask,” he said with a shrug.

“Not a Nobody or a Somebody? Then what?”

“Anybody,” the cloak said, and Axel could hear the smirk on his face without being able to see into the shroud hiding his face. “Unlike you, I do not exist in the Light or the Dark or anywhere in between.”

“What’s left?”

“Nothing.”

Axel frowned and shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around what this person was saying. He couldn’t be _nothing._ Even though Axel hadn’t bothered to confirm that this wasn’t just some ghost, he was sure that he was talking to something. At the very least, the figure before him was tangible. “What do you get out of this? A place in the Organization?”

He laughed. “I have no desire to join your club. Let’s just say that this is a family matter.”

“You got family in there?”

“More or less.”

Axel narrowed his eyes, annoyed at the figure’s vagueness. He knew that the people he usually dealt with were cryptic and vague, but he was used to knowing at least a little of what was going on. “So, you just want to go in there and help me out?”

“Yes.”

Axel gave the figure a critical glare. He wasn’t sure exactly what this person wanted, or why he even wanted to help at all.

“I will go myself and take what is mine regardless of your choice, but I would rather go in there as your ally and not your enemy.”

Axel kept his mouth shut for another moment. There was no reason to trust this hooded figure. He had seen the dangers of trusting strangers. But he wanted his friends back and if this little fellow could help him achieve that, he was willing to take that chance. “Alright, let’s go.”

_~Twilight Town~  
~Day ---~_

“Hey, Roxas! You alive over there?”

Roxas flinched and blinked, zoning back into his surroundings. “Y-yeah,” he said with a slight chuckle. “Sorry.”

Olette was watching him with a worried expression, but the other two boys were just laughed. “On top of a clock tower isn’t the best place to be zoning out, you know.” Hayner teased

Roxas rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Sorry, I was just… thinking.”

Olette eyed him kindly. “About what?”

Of course she would be the one to ask him that. Pence and Hayner had already moved on from his zoning out and had started discussing their plans for the next day.

Roxas sighed and looked down at his feet dangling over the edge of the clock tower. “I was remembering.”

She cocked her head towards him curiously. “What?” she pushed.

He sighed again, shaking his head. “I don’t remember.”

Before Olette could say anything, Hayner jumped into the conversation. “You can’t remember what you were remembering?” He laughed, hitting Roxas on the back in a friendly manner. “I think you’ve hit peak zoning out. You can’t get any worse that that!”

His teasing was in good fun, but all Roxas could manage was a soft dry chuckle. There was a sense of dread growing in his stomach; like the world was ending and only he knew about it. Things were changing and no one else seemed to realize that there was something different in the wind. Not even his friends’ laughter and light banter was enough to garner more than a halfhearted grin from him.

He stood. “I need to go,” he said, cutting off Pence in whatever he was saying.

Hayner gave him an annoyed look, but Olette’s gaze was warmer and worried. “Just remember that we’re hanging out tomorrow,” he told Roxas, who nodded.

Without waiting for the others to say anything, he quickly made his way down from the clock tower and wandered aimlessly. Home didn’t seem very inviting, but nowhere else seemed good either, leaving him to walk through the streets without a destination in mind.

It wasn’t until he spotted the tail end of a dark shadow out of the corner of his eyes that he finally got his attention out of his own mind. He tried to ignore it, but curiosity got the better of him and he jogged around the corner where the shadow had vanished. He stopped short when he came face to face with a tall man in a black hood being flanked by another, shorter, hooded figure.

The red-haired man smiled. “Roxas!”

He flinched. “How do you know my name?”

The man’s smile faded. “So, you really don’t remember,” he muttered, dejected.

“I told you he wouldn’t,” the smaller cloaked figure said.

“Who are you people?” Roxas snapped, taking a step back.

The red head stepped forward, holding out a hand. “Memories or not, we need to leave. Let’s go, Roxas.”

Roxas shook his head. He was pretty sure that he wasn’t supposed to just go places with random strangers, even if they did know his name.

“We don’t have time for this! Let’s _go._ ”

Before Roxas had a chance to reject the offer again, another person stepped into the alleyway. This one was wearing red covering his entire face. He too came with a companion in a hooded cloak. Roxas took several steps away from both duos. What was happening? _Why_ was it happening?

The man in red looked down at the short person in purple. “You…”

The purple cloak stepped forward. “You remember me?”

“I…” The man seemed confused. “I do not, but you seem… familiar. Like a dream of a dream.”

The purple cloak shrugged. “That is a good way to explain it.”

Roxas shook his head, confused as to what was happening. Who were any of these people? Why were they here and how did they know who he was? And what did they want? While the man in red and the person in purple were distracted with one another, the red head and the other cloaked person were still more interested in Roxas.

“We need to leave Roxas,” the red head said urgently.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” the person in the cloak said.

Roxas looked between the gathered groups. He took several more steps back, wishing that he could go back. That same sense of dread filled his stomach, and he grabbed his head, confused and… scared? Of what, he wasn’t sure.

“Get him out of here,” the purple cloak snapped before reaching out a black gloved hand. In a flash of darkness, a large bamboo staff with the bristles of a paintbrush appeared. The figure gripped the dripping weapon and lunged at the man in red. The black cloak jumped between them, using a dragon wing type weapon to clash with the brush.

The red head took the momentary distraction to run at Roxas. He grabbed the kid’s wrist and dragged him along, using his free hand to gesture. A black portal appeared in their path. Roxas dug his heels, trying to pull away from his kidnapper.

“Let me go!” he shouted, slamming his fist onto the hand that was currently gripping his wrist like a pit bull’s locked jaw. “Leave me alone!”

“I’m doing this for your own good!”

“Who are you?” Roxas snapped.

The grip on his wrist got harder, cutting off circulation to his hand. As they drew closer to the dark portal, the more desperate Roxas got, struggling violently against the hand that was dragging him away. He looked back and got a glimpse of the purple cloaked person fighting the other two. Magic attacks flew around the clashing of brush and swords.

“You don’t remember this, but I am your _friend_.”

Roxas stopped struggling just long enough to look at the sincerity in the red head’s face.

“Wait!” the man in the black cloak called after them. “Please…! Don’t take him!”

There was no time. Suddenly, Roxas was being flung through the portal and he was swallowed whole by the Darkness.

~ _Twilight Town~_

Riku paced the computer room, his muscles aching from the fight with that short purple wearing, paintbrush wielding figure.

“There’s no need to be pacing,” DiZ said. “It won’t change anything.”

“What happens now?” Riku asked. Could Sora still be restored?

The man sighed. “Without the Nobody, things have become more complicated,” he said. “We got much done with Sora’s restoration, but the process was not complete.”

Riku paused his pacing and crossed his arms, gripping his forearms tightly. “What does that mean? That he won’t wake up?”

“He should still wake up, but the Sora you knew may not be the one who awakens.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. He looked away, keeping his glare away from DiZ. It wasn’t his fault, after all. He had done a lot to make all of this work and it hadn’t been his doing that had caused all of this to fail. “Who was that? The man in purple.”

He turned back to the computer and shook his head. “I haven’t the slightest clue. He wasn’t a Heartless or a Nobody.”

“So, a somebody, then?”

“I… don’t know. I feel as if I should have known him; like he was a faint memory that I had long since forgotten. But I couldn’t be able to tell you anything.”

That wasn’t a very satisfying answer. Riku didn’t want shadows of memories. He wanted to know who had come into their world without their knowledge and had managed to throw their plans into shambles. He started for the door.

“Where are you going?”

Riku stopped at the door. “To find them. We need that Nobody to make Sora whole.”

“He will awaken soon with or without the Nobody. You should be there for him. Without full restoration, he will be confused and scared. A familiar face will help him.”

He looked down at his hands. Familiar… that was a rich and loaded word that felt like it meant nothing. He hadn’t planned on being there when Sora woke up. He had planned on disappearing into obscurity. Would this really change his plans so drastically? Seeing him like this wouldn’t help Sora. Nothing would… Except Roxas. Having him would be the only thing that would help Sora now. “If he wakes, make him comfortable. I’ll return with the Nobody in hand.”

“And if that fails?”

“Then I will have someone else to greet him.”

DiZ turned his gaze to Riku, his eyes sad. “I am not who he needs to see as the first person when he awakens.”

Riku sighed, putting his hand on the doorframe leading out of the computer room. He knew that. If what he was being told was true, then Sora would wake up scared and confused, and he would need someone who knew him. Someone who could help him. Riku clenched his fist. “I know… but neither am I.”


	2. Chained

> Chapter Two: Chained

_Memories are unpredictable. They can be changed, rearranged, and created from nothing._

_And erased._

_As I have been. I will not be just a shadow. A dream of a dream._

_~The World That Never Was~_

Roxas was forcefully shoved out of the black portal, rolling onto the dark pavement. The stench of wet asphalt struck his nose and made his eyes water. Behind him came the man with red hair and the person in the purple cloak. Roxas got to his hands and knees, looking up at his kidnappers with wide and fearful eyes.

“I think he’s afraid of us,” the purple cloak said. 

The red head looked at the purple cloak. “Can you do something about that?” 

“His memories might restore on their own, but without magic, I can do nothing to help the process.” He motioned to Roxas. “You might want to just let things happen naturally.” 

The red head looked to Roxas and sighed. “Alright.” He approached and Roxas scrambled away, causing him to stop. He held up his hands in surrender. “Hey now, there’s no need for that.” He motioned to himself. “My name’s Axel, and we’re friends.”

“You took me from my friends!”

Axel rubbed the back of his neck with a shake of his head. “They weren’t your friends. All that was fake.”

Roxas flinched, his eyes wide with confusion. 

“You might not want to word things so harshly,” the purple cloak said. “Be gentle. He may be a Nobody like yourself, but one can be fooled into thinking they have a heart.” 

Axel looked back at the purple hood and narrowed his eyes. “It might help settle him down if you took off that hood of yours.” 

To Roxas’ surprise, the man lifted his gloved hand to the angular hood and pulled it from his face. Roxas’ eyes widened when the person was revealed not to be a person at all. Two long black rabbit ears fell from the hood and a white face framed by black fur. The reveal of the rabbit did nothing to soothe Roxas’ nerves. He stood and stepped back away from the bunny.

“My name is Oswald,” the Rabbit introduced. 

Roxas looked between Axel and Oswald. Neither one seemed threatening, but it didn’t mean that they hadn’t kidnapped him. Or were they rescuing him? 

“You got your friend back. What do you want to do with him? Back to the Organization?”

Axel shook his head. “I have no love for those guys. I just wanted Roxas safe.” He crossed his arms and settled into his heels. “I’m sure you are going to collect our debt, though. So, what is it that you want?”

Oswald gave Axel a look of feigned insult. He put a hand to his chest. “Do you think I didn’t do this out of the kindness of my heart?”

Axel laughed. “Do you even have a heart?” 

“I guess that depends on your definition.” 

Now that he was on his feet, Roxas looked for a good escape route. He was in a city, but it seemed abandoned. It didn’t look like he was going to find help here. He wrung his hands. Maybe he could help himself. He didn’t have a weapon, though. 

“Are you two going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked finally. Maybe if he got his kidnappers to explain some things, he could make a better choice about how to deal with what was happening. 

Axel motioned to Oswald. “I got what I wanted, so I’m just waiting to see what the bunny’s payment is.” 

Oswald narrowed his black eyes for just a moment and then his expression melted back to neutral. “Honestly, I got some of what I wanted today already. We stopped the restoration process of Sora. That was part one of my goals.” 

“And the rest?” Axel asked before Roxas could say anything. 

“Nothing much,” Oswald said, waving his hand dismissively. “I just want to topple empires.” 

Roxas flinched back and Axel narrowed his eyes, taking a sharp breath. Roxas shifted his gaze, feeling more and more like he was a kidnapping victim the longer this went on. Axel didn’t seem so bad, but there was something exceptionally cold about the rabbit. Something sinister. 

It was Axel who broke the silence first. “Look, we’re not looking for trouble. I’ll help you with some things, but felling empires…” He trailed off. “That’s not what I signed up for.” 

Oswald gave him a half smirk and crossed his arms. “You don’t know what you signed up for. You’ve already started the process and now you need to uphold your end of the bargain.”

“You took a deal without knowing what was expected of you?” Roxas blurted out before he could really think about the words. He instantly regretted them when those harsh green eyes turned on him. 

But the gaze softened. “The alternative wasn’t exactly ideal,” he defended weakly. 

“I helped you get your friend back, and now your friend needs to help me,” Oswald said. “His life, or his non-existence, is in my hands until the debt has been repaid.”

Roxas looked between them. Realizing now that he had stumbled in on something he shouldn’t have, he slowly backed away. Now more than ever he was worried that he was at the beginning of something far worse. Before he could dart away, he was struck in the chest, throwing him back. Something thick and sticky covered his clothes and for a moment, he worried that it was blood. 

A quick examination of his white shirt revealed that it was black ink. Oswald had out the bamboo paintbrush and he was pointing it towards Roxas. His eyes were fixed solely on Axel. “Uphold your end of the bargain, Axel, or I will blot him out of his sham of an existence.” 

White hot fire erupted, engulfing Oswald in its flames. The resulting scream mingled with the roar of the fire, clawing at Roxas’ ears. Roxas stared at the burning carnage, trembling but unable to look away. What _were_ these people?

Axel ran towards Roxas. “We’re leaving!” 

Roxas didn’t have to be told twice. He turned from the inferno and fled. This time he wasn’t concerned about running into the looming black portal that opened up. Out of the two, it seemed that Axel was clearly the one with the better intentions; even if he had been a kidnapper. 

Before either could reach the opened corridor, a black streak slashed over it, slicing the portal in half. It vanished in a puff of black smoke, leaving Roxas to come to a hasty stop, nearly slipping on the wet street. Axel came up behind him and put a hand on his back to steady him. 

Oswald stood where the portal had been, his paintbrush slung on his shoulder. Axel looked back at where the fire had been and then back at the rabbit. “How did you…?” He stepped forward, getting in between Oswald and Roxas. “What _are_ you?”

Oswald smirked and pointed the tip of the brush at Axel. “I am nothing but a lingering shadow. You can’t kill the wisp of a long-forgotten memory.” He took a step forward. “And I merely want what you want; to be whole again.” 

_~Twilight Town~_

_Where am I?_

_You are here._

Where is here? 

_Here is there._

A confused pause. 

_Who are you?_

Who…? He wasn’t sure. 

_What is your name?_

Name? What was it again? Something pushed at the back of his mind. A name? Yes. 

His name?

No. Someone else’s. 

_What do you see?_

Nothing.

 _Who are you?_ the silent voice asked again. 

_I don’t know,_ he answered. 

_What do you feel?_

Cold. There was a chill in the air, but it wasn’t the temperature. It was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like something he _should_ know but couldn’t remember. 

_Who are you?_

_I don’t know._

_Where are you?_

_I don’t know._

_Who are you?_

_Who are you?_

_Who are you?_

_Who_ are _you?!_

_Who am I?_

He gasped and his eyes flew open. The void of nothing was replaced with a sterile stark white room, momentarily blinding him. He fell from the pod, dropping to his hands and knees and shutting his eyes from the harshness of the white room. Coughs forced their way out of his throat, pushing air out and not giving him enough time to replace it.

He put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart pulsing beneath his fingertips.

The sense of panic slowly ebbed away, and when the sounds of his gasps finished echoing off the walls, he was left in silence. He took several deep breaths, finally allowing himself to settle down long enough to take in his clean surroundings.

The room was white. Almost scarily so. It reminded him… He blinked as nothing came to mind. No frame of reference. The voice that had pestered him echoed through his mind, repeating the same question again and again.

And again.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he jumped back, instinctively reaching out his hand. Something appeared in his grip with a flash of light, and with an incredible amount of muscle memory, he swung the thing at the person touching him.

The weapon hit something hard and unmoving. He leapt back, falling into what he could only assume was a ready stance. He held the weapon out, only then realizing that he was holding what looked like a large skeleton key. He stood facing someone in a long black cloak with a hidden face and a girl wearing a short pink dress.

When it seemed clear that whoever had touched him and blocked his attack wasn’t going to retaliate, he straightened. Once the danger was passed, the key vanished from his grip. He clenched the empty space where the hilt had been, cocking his head at the two people. The splash of color and darkness in the white room was jarring.

He opened his mouth. “Who--?” He cut off his own question, putting his hand to his throat. Was that _his_ voice? The lack of recognition to the sound of his own voice was off putting. He didn’t even know how he wanted to finish that question. What meant more to him? Their names, or his own?

The girl stepped towards him and he took a hesitant step back. Her already worried face fell. The taller person in the black cloak put a hand on her shoulder

“Sora?” she whispered.

Even if he didn’t know the name, something in his chest fluttered. Recognition. He wasn’t sure if the fluttering was for the word or the voice saying it. He shook his head.

“That’s your name,” she said.

Was it? He didn’t think they had any reason to trick him. Though he supposed that he wasn’t in much position to make that judgement call. He didn’t know who these people were or what they wanted. He tried to speak again, but his throat was too dry to form the words he wanted to say.

 _What do you want to say?_ his inner voice berated.

He wasn’t sure how to answer that.

He flinched upon realizing that the girl had gotten closer to him while he was arguing with the voice inside his head.

She smiled at him. “Hi…”

He waved shyly at her, avoiding her gaze.

“Are you okay?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet.

He nodded. Except for the whole “not remembering” things, he felt fine. Nothing seemed broken and aside from dehydration, he was fairly comfortable. But, he supposed that wasn’t what she meant. She probably meant his faded memories. The lost ones. He offered her a smile. “Just thirsty,” he managed to say, pushing out the words through his parched vocal cords.

The worry in her eyes didn’t seem to fade by his attempt to make conversation, but she mustered up a soft smile for him. “We’ll go get you some water,” she said with a nod.

He heard the straining in her voice. The odd cadence in the way she spoke. She was holding back tears.

The smile on his face faded. He didn’t know who she was, but something in him didn’t want to see her cry. Without much input of his own, he stepped forward, cocking his head. “Are you okay?” he asked her, mirroring her own look of worry.

She looked at him. Her blue eyes studied him, moving over his face. Recognition… she was looking for recognition. He wanted to give her what she wanted. What she _needed._

But he couldn’t. He stared at her face and his eyes were dull. Not cold, but distant. Unaware of who he was looking at.

She took a step away from him and her movement hurt his heart, but he didn’t know why. She held her hand over her mouth as the tears started spilling onto her cheeks.

“Why… are you crying?” he asked, feeling a lump in his throat forming.

She shook her head and released a long shaking breath. She brought her hand from her face and smiled at him. It was a sad gesture marred by the tears falling down her cheeks. “No-nothing. No reason.” She swallowed and her voice broke. “I’m just… so happy to see you again.”


	3. Who Are We?

> Chapter Three: Who Are We?

_The throne was mine. The Kingdom belonged to me, but they forgot. They turned their backs. They left me to wander in the Darkness where I did not belong._

_But now I no longer belong to the Light._

_So, where_ do _I belong?_

_~Twilight Town~_

“At least he didn’t lose his appetite,” Riku muttered, watching Sora shovel in the food that they had bought in town. Kairi sat patiently across from him at the table. It hadn’t been fair for Riku to bring her there. She didn’t deserve to be forced to deal with his mess, but he hadn’t known what else to do. This was new territory. His plans had been ruined and now they had to deal with the consequences of it. 

He crossed his arms and leaned on the wall behind him, looming in the shadows. The answers rested with the man in purple. Who was that? _What_ was he? Fighting him had felt different than anything else he had fought before. The magic was cold, and a sense of dread had formed in the pit of his stomach during the encounter. 

There were several reasons someone would want to take the Nobody from them, but the attack had been unprecedented. The Nobodies were aloof and kept to their own, so seeing them coordinate with someone else who didn’t seem to be one of them hadn’t been expected. He cursed himself. They should have been ready for anything. 

Sora seemed to be recovering nicely. Now that they had gotten some food in him, he spoke with animated hand gestures. Despite the situation, Riku couldn’t help but smile. What could he possibly be talking about? He had a blank slate of a mind and had no past to go on, but he was still talking a mile a minute with the widest smile on his face. 

Kairi smiled politely and spoke with him but Riku recognized her stiff body language and her overly kind voice. She was holding back her own feelings for Sora’s sake. There was no reason that she should make him feel bad, too. He probably did feel terrible, even if he wasn’t showing it. 

Both of them were smiling for the other. 

Riku sighed and merely flinched when someone walked up and assumed a position beside him in the darkness. He looked down at the small girl with thin arms, pale skin, and a white dress. “The King has been notified of the recent developments,” she said quietly. When Riku’s only reaction was a slight nod, she continued. “We were unable to locate any information on the purple cloak.” 

Riku frowned. It was disappointing, but not unexpected. He’d have to go into the underbelly himself, then. “Why’d he send you to tell me?”

She laughed softly. “He said I’d be less imposing if Sora saw me,” she whispered. Her voice was light like a soft breeze. 

“That’s… a fair assessment.” He couldn’t deny that DiZ looked rather intimidating to the uninitiated. He motioned to the table. “Can you do anything about this?”

She lowered her gaze and shook her head in shame. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said, crunching the fabric of his cloak in his clenched fist. _It’s mine._ “What about the others?” 

“They haven’t awoken yet. He’s not sure when they will.” 

That put a damper on things, but it didn’t make anything more complicated at least. He pushed off the wall.

“Where are you going?” she asked. 

“I need to figure out who that person in purple was, and then I think we can go from there. I doubt they took Roxas back to their world. If they’re smart, they’ll be hiding out somewhere.” He was hoping that they weren’t that smart. There were an infinite number of worlds out there and they could be hiding out on any of them. He didn’t even know where to start. “Do you have any idea where they would have gone?”

She shook her head. Her blonde hair fell over to cover her face and he couldn’t see her look of shame. Asking her all these questions that she was unable to answer probably wasn’t great for her. “If it weren’t for that other entity, I might be able to make a guess,” she said in her soft voice, “but he’s an unknown variable.”

Riku nodded. Wrenches were being thrown into this more and more. He bid her farewell and then he faded out of the restaurant and onto the dusk-lit street. Once outside, he released a long breath. The question of where to begin weighed heavily on his mind. Finding three people who didn’t want to be found in this haystack of worlds was daunting. 

He supposed that he could shake down the Organization, but he quickly shot down that idea. If they didn’t know about these recent developments, he didn’t want to be the one to tell them. Finding Mickey seemed out of the question. One didn’t find the King, the King found _them._ He figured now that Mickey knew that something had gone wrong, he would search Riku out eventually. 

He paused. What if they weren’t finished? What if the purple cloak hadn’t wanted just Roxas? Would he be back for Sora? He looked back at the restaurant and frowned. Was it safe to leave Sora alone and unguarded with strangers? Everyone was a stranger to him now, but he and Kairi had become less so in the handful of hours since his awakening. Sora had shown that even without his memory, he could still move like the trained fighter he was.

Riku shook his head. That didn’t matter. He _couldn’t_ leave Sora unattended. There were people out there who would want to take advantage of him. With a longsuffering sigh, he turned back towards the building. If he had just been able to talk to Axel, maybe none of this would have happened. The Nobody was a hot head, but he seemed to be the most reasonable of the bunch.

His hand hovered over the doorknob. Maybe he wouldn’t have been able to reason with Axel. They wanted the same thing, after all.

To have their friends back.

~ _Twilight Town~_

Sora…

_Is that your name?_

It must have been. That was what the girl in front of him had called him. It was a nice name. A pretty one.

Sky…

It was weird what he _did_ remember. He could still talk, and laugh, and tell her stories. Now that he had heard his name, he knew what it meant; even if it didn’t feel like his own.

_What is her name?_

Kairi.

She had to tell him that. He hadn’t remembered, even though he wanted to. If only for her sake.

She was being polite by listening to him ramble about things, but their conversation had devolved into silence while he ate, and she watched him with so much sadness in her eyes. He took a bite of the food in front of him and chewed it, finally slowing down. “Kairi?” he said aloud, tasting the word in his mouth.

She perked up just a little. Just enough. Maybe she thought that he had some memory of her.

“Never mind,” he muttered. He didn’t want to disappoint her by admitting that he didn’t have what she wanted.

The idea backfired. Her face fell and that small spark left her eyes. “I missed you, Sora.”

He cocked his head, unsure of what he should say to that. He knew what she _wanted_ to hear. That he had missed her too. That he was happy to see her. He was, but not for the reason she wanted him to. He was happy to have someone to talk to. He was happy that he wasn’t alone. But he wasn’t happy to see her in particular. Was that wrong of him? He felt like it was. He was letting her down for something and he didn’t know what it was.

“I’m happy you’re here,” he said at length, offering her a smile.

She mirrored it, but it wasn’t happy.

Before she could respond, the man in the black cloak came back. Relief washed over her face and Sora looked up at the hooded figure.

“We’re leaving,” the man said without addressing Sora. His words were for Kairi. “I was hoping to leave him here. There’s no reason to confuse him more.”

“But…?” she pushed.

“But I don’t think that’s a good idea. He might not be able to defend himself.”

Sora’s attempt at a happy smile faded and he looked back down at the remaining food on the table. They were talking about him like he wasn’t there.

_You aren’t._

That was true. Sora, whoever that was, wasn’t there. At least not in the capacity that they knew him.

_Who is Sora?_

“I don’t know,” he murmured, unaware that he had spoken aloud.

Both the man and Kairi turned to him. “Did you say something?” he asked.

“No.” Was he supposed to tell them that he was talking to the voices in his head? They were already worried about him. The looks they gave him were enough to drive anyone crazy. He didn’t want to give them even more reason to be worried for him.

The man stared at him for a solid minute before shaking his head. “Okay, then we need to leave. Let’s go.”

Kairi stood but Sora didn’t move.

“Sora, we’re leaving,” he said.

He looked down at the table, staring hard at the plate in front of him. None of this felt real. It was like a dream, and he hated it. “Who is Sora?” he asked, repeating the question the voice had asked him. Was that his voice?

The man seemed impatient with the way he spoke. Tense and a little rushed. It was clear that he was trying to be tolerant, but the tone of his voice was patronizing. Like he was talking to a child. “ _You_ are.”

“I don’t feel like Sora.”

“You don’t know what that feels like.” He stepped towards Sora. “I promise that you _will_ feel like yourself again. But for now, we really need to leave.”

Sora shook his head. No. Why should he go with these people? “I don’t know you.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Riku,” Kairi scolded in a motherly tone. “Be gentle.”

Sora looked up and for a heartbeat, everything stood still. That name sent a pang through his chest. His heart hurt upon hearing it. Physical longing. The moment passed, leaving him cold and empty. That brief respite from his confusion had been enough to make him miss remembering. “How do you know I’m Sora.”

The man in the cloak… Riku… shook his head. “We don’t have time for this. I know you’re Sora because that’s who you are, and we’re going to fix this, but we can’t if we’re standing here asking questions.” He held out his gloved hand. “I know you’re confused, and you’re probably scared, but you have to trust me.”

Sora looked down at the outstretched hand and then looked up at the hood. “Let me see your face.”

“Now’s not the time for that…”

“You want me to trust you, but you won’t even show me your face.”

Riku’s shoulders dropped.

“You might as well,” Kairi urged.

Riku sighed and reached up, removing the hood. Long white hair fell freely. Sora felt like he should feel something more than just blind indifference, but he didn’t.

“Now can we go?” Riku asked, replacing the hood over his head.

Sora sighed. He didn’t have any reason to think that these people were anything but good. They seemed to have his best intentions. But he just didn’t feel like who they wanted him to be. And he felt guilty about that.

He pushed away from the table and stood, nodding. “Sure, let’s go.” He put his hands behind his head and walked out of the building in front of them, only to pause once he was outside and on the street.

Riku walked past him without stopping and Kairi paused beside him. “What’s wrong?”

He looked up at the sky showing a perfect sunset. “It’s weird,” he said with a sad smile. “I don’t remember you guys, and I don’t know where we are, but I feel almost sad that we’re leaving.”

She looked at him curiously. “Why’s that?”

He shrugged. He could probably say that he felt that way because this was, at that moment, the only place he knew, but that would be a lie. “I’m not sure.” He looked up at the clock tower looming in the distance. “This place just feels like home.”


	4. Little Piece of Heaven

> Chapter Four: Little Piece of Heaven

_If no one remembers you, did you ever really exist?_

_~Undisclosed~_

Now that things had calmed down, Axel was able to think a little more about what he had gotten himself and Roxas into. After the threat of violence back on the streets, Oswald hadn’t said much and had actually been rather polite to them. Despite his vagueness and prone to violence, he didn’t seem like a bad person. But Axel realized that he might just be stressed enough to take any act of kindness as a sign of being a good person. 

They were in a hotel on a world picked at random. The best way to avoid getting caught by everyone who would be looking for them was to not have a plan. He looked over from his own bed to where Roxas was curled up tightly on the adjacent bed. Axel wasn’t sure if the kid was sleeping. He didn’t think he was. His position showed that even though he had stopped calling Axel and Oswald his kidnappers, he still didn’t trust them. 

He knew he had messed up. Roxas’ words about how stupid he had been to take the deal without knowing all the details rang true. He _had_ been an idiot. A desperate fool chasing something that he wasn’t even sure was real. And worse, Sora was probably suffering for this as well. 

He looked over to the balcony where the rabbit was sitting on the stone railing. He stood and walked towards the balcony, crossing past Roxas. The blonde flinched, revealing that he was, in fact, not sleeping. Axel ignored the motion, stepping outside into the cool night. Oswald didn’t seem to be bothered by his presence and he hung back, looking out at the dark forest beyond them. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Axel asked.

Oswald turned to him with his soulless black eyes. “I told you.”

“Yes, you said you wanted to topple empires, but which ones specifically?” What were they planning on doing? Kill a handful of people? 

Oswald looked back at the trees and said nothing for several minutes, leaving Axel to think that perhaps he wouldn’t speak at all. When he did, his voice was quiet and raspy. “I need an army.”

Axel tried not to react to that but his hands gripped the railing tightly. “An army of what? Heartless?” 

“Memories.” 

Axel blinked. Memories were powerful things. Whether they were present or not, they held power. But he had never heard of anyone using memories as weapons. “How do you plan on doing that?” he asked despite not being sure if he wanted that answer. The other question was what he and Roxas had to do with any of this. Sure, Roxas was a bit of an amnesiac at the present, but that could be fixed. Probably. 

Hopefully. 

“Don’t you know how powerful memories can be?” Oswald asked. “We base our entire identity on our memories. Look at your friend. He remembers nothing and is not the person _you_ remember. Two Roxases exist at this moment in time. The Roxas that he knows, and the one that you knew.” 

“Well, that’s not entirely true.” He looked at the door leading into the hotel room. “He’s still _my_ Roxas. What he experienced wasn’t real. Those memories in him are fake.” 

Oswald shrugged. “Why? If he believes them to be real, then they must be.”

Axel chuckled dryly. “That’s not how this works.” 

“No, that’s not how you _want_ this to work.” 

Axel gripped the railing tightly. Those memories weren’t real. The life that had been created for Roxas in that fake Twilight Town didn’t belong to him. They were empty. This, right now… That was real. “What of it?” he asked with tightness in his voice. 

Oswald dangled his feet, swinging them like a child. “Right now there is only one of me that exists. Only I remember my life. I told you that all I want is to be whole again.”

Axel scoffed. “You’re not whole if no one remembers you?”

“Where do you think memories go when they are forgotten?”

He shrugged, having not given much thought to that question. “They just fade, I guess.” 

“Do they?” Oswald turned his cold gaze to Axel. “Have you never simply remembered something that had been once long forgotten? That memory didn’t fade away. It merely left. The memories Roxas has of you are not gone, they are simply forgotten.”

Axel remained silent, unsure of where this was going. 

“I was forgotten by all who knew me, but I am still here.”

“So instead of toppling empires, why don’t you just waltz up to your old home and introduce yourself? Seems like you’d save yourself a lot of trouble.” 

Oswald laughed at that, shaking his head. “I can’t just walk up to where I used to live. That place doesn’t much exist anymore.”

“Then the people who knew you?”

“Wouldn’t make a difference,” he said. “Getting an audience with my brother isn’t as simple as just knocking on the door.”

So, he did have a family. Maybe that was a good thing. “Who is he, then?”

“King Mickey.”

Axel sputtered. He couldn’t help it. The claim was so absurd that it almost felt like a parody. He composed himself before speaking. “I didn’t know the King had a brother,” he said, managing to keep his voice even.

Oswald nodded. “That’s the point,” he said. “No one remembers that Mickey has a brother. No one remembers _me.”_

Axel stared forward, unsure of what to say. Was he supposed to try and comfort the rabbit? Or was he meant to merely stand up straight and let him talk?

“But no more.” He looked to Axel. “I’ll ask again. Where do memories go when they’re lost?”

Axel shrugged. He felt like this was some sort of riddle. Something that wasn’t meant to be answered. “I don’t know.”

Oswald smirked. “I do. I’ve been there.”

_~Altissia~_

At DiZ’s suggestion, Riku stood on a bridge overlooking a beautiful port city. The sound of running water filled his ears but it wasn’t overwhelming. In fact, it was rather soothing given how chaotic the past few hours had been. It would have been perfect if it weren’t for the blazing sun that was bearing down on his heavy black cloak, steaming him quite thoroughly in the fabric.

Kairi had been pleased to hear they were going to a city by the sea and she had taken Sora to explore the town. “Maybe the smell of the ocean breeze will help him remember,” she had said. Riku wasn’t sure that Sora’s brand of memory loss could be jogged so easily, but he hadn’t discouraged her. Anything to bring them both a little happiness.

Which left Riku to wander the streets alone on his single mission to learn what he could. With DiZ’s directions in mind, Riku made his way to the capitol city’s center. He was aware of the strange looks he was getting as he walked along. The black cloak stood out like a sore thumb in the heat of the day. No one in their right mind would think to wear something so hot.

 _When was the last time I was in my right mind?_ he thought with a scoff.

Ignoring the bewildered looks, Riku made his way to a library tucked away on one of the many canals that ran through the city. He stepped inside, fleeing the blazing heat of the light to the comforting chill of the dark building. What he was met with floored him.

Inside the library were books from floor to ceiling. Every square inch of the place was covered in books. It seemed the only way to traverse the building was through a small path made in the books that looked more like a game trail than an aisle. Riku made his way through the books to the frost desk that was practically buried beneath a heavy layer of the tomes.

“Hello?” he called. There was movement from somewhere in the store and within moments, a tall, lanky mouse in a pinstripe suit came scurrying from the forest of novels.

Riku stared at the mouse and sighed. Fine. He remembered a time when the sight of a man-sized mouse would have given him pause. A simpler time. He kind of missed those times as he held out a hand for the mouse to grab. 

After the casual greeting, the mouse narrowed his eyes at him. “What’s with the hood? It’s hotter than Hades out there.”

 _I know…_ Riku thought, but he kept the snide comment to himself. “I was told you might be able to help me find something. What’s your knowledge of what’s in these books?” 

“Ah, I’m not who you’re looking for. I just run the front desk.” He coughed and raised his voice. “KnowsMore! You got a customer!”

Riku wrinkles his nose at the sudden shouting, but he made no real movement to show any signs of discomfort. He looked down as a small purple creature scuttled towards him through the sea of books. 

“There’s no need to shout, Mortimer. I’m not deaf, and this is a library.” He paused and looked up at Riku. “Ah, I’m assuming you are the customer.” He scrambled onto the desk and pushed his round-rimmed glasses up onto his face. He shooed away the mouse and looked back at Riku. “How can I help you?” 

Riku blinked. Sometimes he just felt like he could never be surprised by the strange and fantastical world that he occupied. And then things like this happened. “I’m not sure, actually. I need help locating some information about people who may be running around in purple cloaks with chained patterns on their sleeves.”

KnowsMore wrinkled his nose in thought. “That’s a rather vague request,” he said. “But… I think I might be able to help you.” He lifted his head. “Mortimer!” he shouted. The mouse came back carrying a handful of books with him. 

“Wha’cha need, Mores?” 

KnowsMore waved his hand. “That old tome on ancient factions. You know where that is?”

“Sure do.” He deposited the books on the desk with a crash and then he was off again in the forest of books. 

KnowsMore watched him go and fiddled with his glasses. “That’s an odd fellow there. Sharp as a whip, but rough around the edges.”

“Right.”

Mortimer came back within moments carrying a comically large book in his hands. He dropped the thing on the desk, causing all the other books, and KnowsMore, to pop a few inches off the surface. 

KnowsMore clicked his tongue. “Books are lovely, but so very impractical.” He licked his fingers and started flipping the pages faster than Riku was sure anyone else could read them. 

“So, wearing that garb, you must know the King, then,” Mortimer said. 

“Yeah,” Riku muttered, distracted by the speedreading going on in front of him. 

“You know, I dated the Queen.”

That got Riku’s attention. He turned to the mouse sharply. “You?” he blurted out before realizing that it was probably a rude thing to say. 

“Well buddy, you don’t have to act so surprised,” Mortimer said in a huff. 

“Sorry.”

Mortimer shrugged. “No need to apologize. That was many years ago.” He leaned against the bookcase behind him and for a moment, the only sound was the rustling of paper as KnowsMore powered through the tome. “How’s their kid?”

“Mickey and Minnie don’t have any children.”

“Is that so?” 

Mortimer sounded unsure about that but before Riku could question him about it, KnowsMore let out an excited “Ah-ha!” and pointed triumphantly at an illustration tucked in the final pages of the ancient book. “Is this what you’re looking for.” 

Riku leaned closer to the book. The drawn figure was faceless, standing in a relaxed pose with its arms slightly away from its side. The illustration was in greyscale, but the chain patterns in the sleeves were there, if not barely visible. The angular hood was another dead giveaway. 

“That’s it!” But the description of the figure was written in a runic language that Riku had never seen before. “Can you read that?”

“A little,” KnowsMore said. “It’s a very ancient language. What’s odd is that it’s not written in the same script as the rest of this book.” He leaned closer to the pages, almost putting his nose to the paper. “They are Memory Eaters known as _Has Oblivionis Caligine Eius._ The Forgotten Ones.” He squinted his eyes. “I can’t make out much more than that.”

“Where do they come from?”

KnowsMore shrugged. “Sorry. This is a language I only have a base knowledge in.”

Riku sighed. It was a start. “You say they’re Memory Eaters?”

“Yes. Instead of devouring hearts, it seems these creatures live off of the memories of others.”

“Can you get me a copy of this?” If KnowsMore couldn’t read the text, _someone_ had to be able to.

“Of course!” and then he was off again, carrying the massive book like it was nothing more than a children’s chapter book. Riku turned back to Mortimer to ask him what he had meant early, but the lanky rodent was gone, disappeared into the sea of paper.

Riku crossed his arms and shook his head. It was probably nothing.


	5. All You See is Darkness

> Chapter Five: All You See is Darkness

_A person is the compilation of all their lived experiences. All their memories._

_But if you don’t remember them, did they ever really happen?_

_If you have no recollection of your life, then who are you?_

_~_ _Altissia ~_

Sora stared in wonder at the fish that swam in the canal beneath their feet. The sound of rushing water was prevalent throughout this new city and it was beautiful. Kairi had told him that they came from a quaint village by the sea and while he didn’t remember it, he felt like it was true. He was drawn to the water and the smell of the ocean made him feel at home even if he didn’t really know what that meant. 

Kairi told him all of what she knew about the events of the past few hours and while she was trying to remain positive, he still saw the pain in her eyes as they spoke. He wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, but he didn’t know that for sure and he doubted that she would be swayed by his halfhearted attempt to be optimistic. 

“This city is really pretty,” Sora said instead, breaking the silence that had been steadily growing between them. 

“It is,” she agreed lightly. 

Sora’s attempt at starting a good conversation deflated. He dropped his hands to his side and then squatted on the edge of the canal, watching the fish dart around just below the surface. He caught his own reflection in the water and frowned at the stranger staring back up at him. Those bright blue eyes held no recognition for his own face. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

“For what?” 

“You wanted Sora back.” He looked up at her and frowned. “But you got me instead.”

“You _are_ Sora,” she insisted. “The memories that make you who you are aren’t gone, they’re just lost. We’ll find them.”

“If that’s true, then why are you so sad?” It had been bothering him this entire time. Every time she looked at him, there was sadness in her eyes, and it made him squirm. If she believed that he was the same person despite those lost memories, why wouldn’t she just be happy that he was there, alive, and well? 

Kairi didn’t answer. Instead, she squatted next to him and they watched the fish together. He felt like he knew the answer. He _was_ the person she had longed to see, but without those memories, that connection wasn’t as strong. The chain linking them together was broken, and he hoped it wasn’t beyond repair. 

He pointed out a brightly colored fish moving through the canal. Contrasted with the beautifully vibrant scales, he realized how dark the rest of the water was. 

“Sora, I---”

“We’ve got a lead,” Riku said, coming up behind them and cutting off whatever Kairi was about to say. 

They stood in unison. “Are we leaving?” she asked. 

He nodded. “Yeah. We gotta find someone who can read this.” He handed a small stack of papers to Kairi, who took them carefully. Sora tried to look over her shoulder, but she subtly averted the paper, making him unable to make out anything more than a few stray brushstrokes that he assumed were words. 

“What is this?” she asked. 

“Apparently that thing that attacked us is known as a Forgotten. It eats memories.”

“Is that what’s wrong with me, then?” Sora asked.

Riku looked at him and shook his head slowly. “No. What happened to you was a little more complicated than that.” 

Kairi handed back the paper after a fruitless attempt to read it. “What does that mean?”

He took it. “I’m not sure. Seems weird that a memory eater would go after a Nobody that didn’t have memories. Unless…” He trailed off into thought and then shook his head. “Regardless, we have a pretty solid lead right now. I’d say this wasn’t a completely wasted trip.” He put a hand on Sora’s shoulder, startling him out of his straying thoughts. “What about you? Did the ocean breeze jog your memory any?”

Sora shook his head. “No.” 

Riku sighed. “Well, there’s no need to be upset about it. We’ll get this whole mess sorted out soon.” He didn’t sound like he believed that. His voice held the same strained tone that had plagued Sora’s attempts to talk to Kairi. He wasn’t sure what was causing it, though. Did they pity him? Or was it something else that kept them a bit standoffish? 

“It’s a bit of a shame to be leaving this world,” Sora said quietly.

“We’ll come back when you’re better, if you want.”

 _When you’re better._ Wasn’t he already better? He smiled none-the-less, despite feeling a twinge of sadness at hearing her say that. He knew what she meant, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting a little. 

“That’s a good idea,” Riku said, nodding. “But for now, we really should be going. I don’t want the memory eater getting any further in his plan.”

“And what is his plan?”

Riku sighed. “I wish I knew.”

When they got back to the ship, Kairi settled into her chair. Sora hung back a little, fiddling with his thumbs. He was considering not bothering to form any sort of relationship with them. They wanted their friend back and while he too wanted to regain his memories and his life experiences, he also didn’t want to try and build something that would eventually be dismantled. This version of himself would essentially die once they returned his memories. 

Despite that, he walked over to her. “Hey Kairi. Back at the canal. You were going to say something, weren’t you? What was it?”

Kairi looked up at him with that same distant, sad, and pitied look and she offered him a sad smile. “It was nothing… Sora.” 

He flinched back like she had risen a hand to strike him. There was that small pause before she had said his name. A name that seemed like neither of them believed belonged to him. “Okay.” He turned and started back for his own seat as Riku got the ship ready for departure.

“Sora!” Kairi called, hurrying after him. She grabbed his arm. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t fair for you, and it’s confusing.”

He nodded. “And it’s not fair for you either,” he said. He knew he wasn’t being fair to them either. They were trying their best. He turned back to face Kairi.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “I just want things back to how they were. Don’t you?”

Sora held back a wince, unsure of how to answer that. He knew how he was supposed to respond. Of course they wanted everything back to normal, but how could he want that? He didn’t know what that meant. What had his life been before all of this happened?

He pushed down the doubt. “Yes,” he said with a feigned smile. “Of course, I want things to go back to how they were.” He hoped that the strain he felt in saying those words didn’t translate to his tone. “Why wouldn’t I?”

 _~_ _Alaasikaq_ _~_

It was cold. Roxas hung back, pulling an oversized fur-lined animal-skin coat tightly around himself. Despite the heavy fabric, the cold wind still cut through to his skin, causing his body to tremble with the chill. He couldn’t understand how Axel and Oswald seemed completely unbothered by the weather. And Axel was still only wearing that same black cloak, giving no effort to blend into the area they now occupied.

The natural beauty of the world did nothing to sweeten Roxas’ sour mood. Not even the stunning hillside that they had appeared onto. Oswald was already heading up towards the submit of the mountain above. Roxas looked behind them to the valley where there were smokestacks, indicating some sort of settlement below. Axel was trailing behind Oswald but stopped frequently to make sure Roxas was still keeping up. Despite all the evidence to say that he shouldn’t, Roxas stuck behind them, moving up the hillside carefully.

He let out a long breath and watched his breath freeze and float above his head. “Why are we here?” he called.

Axel shrugged. “Ask the bunny calling all the shots here.”

“Rabbit,” Oswald snapped.

“Is there a difference?”

Oswald elected not to answer, which was a detail that caused Roxas to chuckle to himself.

“We need to harvest magic here,” Oswald explained. “As I said, we are amassing an army.”

“Of what?” Roxas asked. He didn’t know if he was crossing some sort of boundary or not, but he didn’t want to help these people if they were truly causing copious amounts of harm to the worlds.

“Memory Eaters,” Oswald said.

Roxas stopped walking. Axel didn’t seem as shocked, but he too faltered a little.

“And how do we do that?” Axel asked.

“We’re here because there’s a powerful source of magic in this world based on ancestry and tradition; the greatest form of memorial magic.” 

Axel motioned for Roxas to hurry up before catching up to Oswald. “What exactly are we trying to accomplish?”

Roxas, wanting to hear the rest of this conversation, hurried after them.

“I have been forgotten and forsaken by everyone who has ever known me while my brother basked in the Light. Now it is his turn to wander alone in the Darkness.”

“So, you have issues,” Roxas muttered.

“Don’t you?” Oswald asked.

“No, I do---”

“Yes, you do,” Axel said quickly.

Roxas narrowed his eyes, glaring heavily at the back of Axel’s head.

“Save your stare. You’re going to burn a hole in my head.” Axel said. He then shrugged dismissively. “You’re an amnesiac who was kidnapped by the wrong side of this war.”

Roxas stopped. “Wait. We’re not the good guys, here?”

“That depends,” Oswald started, but Axel shook his head, turning back to Roxas.

“It doesn’t depend on anything,” Axel snapped, clenching his fists tightly. His voice trembled slightly when he spoke. “We _are_ the bad guys.”

Oswald snorted and said nothing. He just continued up the hillside. Axel took one long look at Roxas and started after Oswald, leaving the blonde to watch them retreat.

Roxas shook his head. What did it matter if they were the bad guys? He wasn’t part of their little group. Was he? He started walking again, keeping his eyes on the ground, both to track his feet and to think. Could he run? He didn’t think he’d get very far. Instead of running away, he started jogging to catch up.

“Axel!” he called, coming up beside the man. Axel seemed like he was having a worse time than Roxas was and he wasn’t sure exactly how that was possible.

Axel slowed down. “What’s up, kid?”

He looked down at his hands while he fiddled with his thumbs. “Twilight Town. Hayner and Olette, and Pence… My friends. You said that was all fake. Do they really exist, or was all that just a fabrication?” Maybe it would be beneficial to know what Axel believed the truth to be.

Axel sighed. “They’re real people and that’s a real place, but not how you knew them. They’re just some kids in the _real_ Twilight Town that you wanted to meet. I guess they wanted to give you something that would make you happy.” He chuckled dryly and shook his head.

“What’s so funny?”

“He’s thinking about how you don’t have a heart,” Oswald said. “So, them doing anything to make you happy or bring you peace is illogical.”

Axel lifted his head sharply. “Now’s not the time for that.”

Oswald waved his hand dismissively. “You want him to remember who he is, but you don’t want him to know _what_ he is _?”_

“That’s different.”

“Is it? If you want him to be the Roxas you knew, then that entails explaining to him what a Nobody is.”

“What are you two talking about?” Roxas asked. His stomach suddenly dropped at their conversation. Were they implying that he wasn’t human? That he didn’t have a heart? He looked up at Axel. “Wait, so does that mean you don’t have a heart, either?”

“No, he doesn’t,” Oswald said. Axel flinched but said nothing to contradict what the rabbit said.

Roxas slowed down a little, letting Axel and Oswald get ahead of him a little. He stared at Axel’s back, cocking his head. Axel didn’t have a heart? But if that was true… “Then why did you try so hard to get me back?” Axel had called him a friend. Had seemed genuinely hurt when Roxas had rejected him. Roxas wouldn’t have guessed that he was looking at someone without the capability to feel. “Can you have friends if you don’t have a heart?”

Axel bowed his head, and his answer was barely audible above the wind on the mountainside. “I wish it worked that way.”


	6. Before You Say Good-Bye

> Chapter Six: Before You Say Good-Bye

_They feared me because I played in the Dark._

_~Alaasikaq~_

“So, King Mickey is a mouse, right?” Axel asked. Twilight had settled over the mountainside and it looked like they still had another hour or so left of hiking before they reached the summit. The grass had given way to stone and the cold had turned bitter. Axel was attempting have a conversation to keep morale up. Roxas didn’t look like he was going to make it.

Oswald sighed like he knew where this was going. “Yes.”

Axel put his fingers to his chin in thought. “And you’re a bunny.”

“It appears that way, yes.”

Axel smirked at the annoyed tone he was getting. Oswald was telling him not-so-subtly to _not_ finish his line of questioning. Axel promptly ignored the silent warnings. “Then how are you Mickey’s brother? Did your mother have a fling or something with a hare?”

“Don’t talk about my mother like that,” Oswald snapped.

Axel held up his hands in surrender. “Well, how does a rabbit come from a mouse?”

“It’s complicated.”

Axel shrugged. That meant that Oswald just didn’t want to talk about it. He was fine with that, and they lapsed into silence. After a few more minutes of trudging up the mountain, Axel said, “What do memories eaters do, anyway?”

“They eat memories.”

“I never would have guessed.” He crossed his arms. It seemed like a rather round-about way to get what he wanted. The Organization had attempted to try something similar with Sora, so why hadn’t Oswald just done what the others did? He didn’t ask. If Oswald didn’t know about Naminé, then Axel wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. “I meant why go through all the trouble of making an army when memories are fickle, as you’ve said. There has to be an easier way.”

“Memories are odd little things. Even forgotten, they can be remembered eventually. They exist in wisps that float away, but can be grasped again. One can remember something long forgotten by following a rabbit trail until they are led back to that disregarded place.”

“Like a chain,” Axel said. So, Oswald at least knew of the existence of Naminé’s brand of magic.

Oswald nodded. “Yes. Those links don’t vanish. They just get rearranged. Memory eaters are different. Once a memory is devoured by them, it no longer exists.”

“What?”

“Of course, others can remember those memories, but the person who has had their own recollections eaten will never be able to recover them.”

Axel clenched it fists. It all sounded cruel. Heartless, even.

Oswald smirked. “And if a person is devoured by a memory eater.”

Axel’s eyes widened as he put two and two together. “ _No one_ will remember them,” he breathed.

“As if they never existed.”

“That’s what you want to do to King Mickey. Feed him to a memory eater so you can come back as the long-lost heir to the throne.”

Oswald nodded. “Precisely.”

“And what happens to the King?”

“He becomes one of the Forgotten.”

Axel looked down at his feet. He didn’t like what he was helping this rabbit do. He hadn’t really met the King, but overall, he seemed like a good person. He wasn’t even sure how Oswald and Mickey had come from the same family. He shook his head. That didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he had his friend back and maybe they could have some sort of normalcy once this was all over.

He half looked back towards Roxas. “How are you doing back there?”

No answer.

“Roxas?” Axel’s first thought was that Roxas had tried to flee. That would spell disaster for him given that this place seemed fairly unforgiving. When he turned fully around, he found that Roxas hadn’t answered because he was gone, but because he couldn’t.

Roxas had fallen behind and he was struggling to keep up, stumbling and walking like he was drunk.

“Roxas!” He turned back to Oswald. “Hang on!” Before Oswald could object, Axel ran down the hill, slipping on the stones but managing to stay upright. He skidded to a halt in front of Roxas just in time for the young Nobody to pitch forward. Axel caught him and lowered them both to the ground gently.

“We need to keep moving!” Oswald snapped, hurrying back to them.

“Can’t you see there’s something wrong with him?” Axel shot back. He rolled Roxas over to lie on his back, practically cradling the kid. “What’s wrong?”

Roxas looked up at him and Axel flinched back when Roxas’ dull blue eyes locked with Axel’s green ones. Roxas was pale and shivering.

“Why don’t you just carry him, then?” Oswald suggested. “Can Nobodies even _get_ sick?”

Axel gave him a harsh look before softening it to look back at Roxas. “Hey… Roxas, you’re going to be okay.”

Roxas looked up at him. “Who is Roxas?”

Axel’s stomach dropped as the body in his arms went limp.

_~Gummi Ship, Between Worlds~_

_He sat alone on a clock tower. His hand gripped the wooden stick of a bright blue ice cream bar. “Do you remember what that flavor is called?”_

_He flinched and looked to his left as a tall man with fiery red hair stepped around the corner. He looked down at the dessert. “Sea Salt.” The words came out automatically. He hadn’t known until he said them._

_“That’s right!” the red head said. He sat down and motioned to the treat. “If you don’t eat it, it’ll melt, you know.”_

_Did he know that? That’s how ice cream worked, wasn’t it?_

_He shook his head and brought the ice cream to his mouth, taking a bite. It tasted like nothing. “It’s good,” he lied. He looked over at the red head. “Who are you?”_

_The man sighed and looked up at the orange sky. “Jeez, kid! I already told ya!” He pointed to his own chest. “I’m Axel.”_

_“Axel…” he repeated, tasting the word in his mouth. It was sweet and salty. And it burned. His grip on the ice cream stick slackened and the treat fell from his hands._

_“Hey! Those things aren’t free,” Axel scolded. He didn’t sound mad. Concerned, maybe._

_He stood and turned to Axel. “Who are you?”_

_“I just told you.”_

_“Where are we?” Panic was entering his voice. This didn’t look familiar. His eyes darted, looking for something to latch on to. “Who are you?” he repeated._

_The man stood, clenching his fists. “My name is Axel!”_

_He stepped towards the man; his breathing was labored as the panic gripped his heart. “Who are you?!” he shouted._

_Axel grabbed his shoulders. He looked up. Instead of the red-haired man, the person gripping him was now younger with white hair and blue eyes. “Get ahold of yourself, Sora!”_

_“I’m not Sora!” He broke away from the hands that held him, and he placed his foot on nothing but air. And suddenly, he was falling in slow motion. He reached up towards the man staring down at him, watching him fall. It wasn’t the white-haired boy anymore. A blonde boy now stood in the dark cloak, staring down as he fell._

_He closed his eyes and hit the ground with a sickening_ thud _. The world shattered around him._

“Roxas!” Sora gasped, jolting out of his uneasy sleep. He was drenched in sweat despite the rather chilly condition in the Gummi Ship. Kairi had also fallen asleep in her chair and Riku was driving the ship.

He jumped and looked back at Sora, gripping the steering tightly. “Did you say something?”

“Roxas,” Sora repeated.

Riku stood in an instant, putting the ship on what Sora could only imagine was autopilot. Riku crossed the cockpit. “What did you just say?”

“Roxas,” Sora said again.

“How do you know that name?” He squatted in front of Sora. “Who told you?”

He shook his head, and instantly regretted it. The movement caused a wave of vertigo to overcome him. He closed his eyes. “N-no one,” he said.

“Are you okay?” Riku asked.

Sora opened his eyes. “Yeah, I think so.”

Riku removed his glove and put his hand to Sora’s forehead. Despite having been incased in fabric for hours, Riku’s palm felt like ice against Sora’s skin. Riku recoiled. “You’re burning up.” He stood. “We need to land.”

“I’m fine.” His words were beginning to slur.

Riku ignored him and went to Kairi, shaking her awake. “Keep an eye on Sora. We’re landing.”

She rubbed her eyes. “Where?”

He sat down back at the driver’s seat and did a quick scan. “The nearest world. We’ll land there and get him some water.”

Sora wasn’t paying much attention anymore. Despite his protests that he was fine, he felt unconsciousness tugging at the back of his mind, threatening to drag him under. Kairi knelt in front of him and put a hand on his cheek. The chill of her skin was soothing. His vision blurred and suddenly he wasn’t staring at Kairi anymore.

A black-haired girl now enveloped his fuzzy view.

“Sora?” Her voice came to his from a distance. It wasn’t Kairi’s voice anymore. It belonged to someone else.

His lids fluttered while his eyes rolled, unable to stay focused.

“Riku!” the girl shouted. Worry laced her voice, but Sora didn’t understand why. He was fine… wasn’t he? His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell into the darkness.

_~Twilight Town~_

She sat alone in a pure white room. The only sound was her pencil moving effortlessly across the white paper. The drawings brought her no joy as she scribbled away. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. She had promised Sora and Riku that she would protect them, but she had failed to do so. Now she didn’t know how to help them. She couldn’t gather the pieces of Sora’s memory and link them back together. His memories were no long pristine links of a chain. They were rusted and cracked. She didn’t know if she could bring this chain back together.

The door opened and she flinched, looking up from her drawing. The harsh red of the man’s clothes were jarring against the white of the room. “Hello, DiZ,” she whispered, putting her pen down on the paper.

He walked towards her and looked over her shoulder at the drawing. It was nothing but incoherent scribbles. He put a hand on her bare shoulder, and she retreated into herself, bowing her head deeper.

“Your drawing is confusing, Naminé.”

“Sora and Roxas are in a confusing situation,” she whispered.

“I suppose they are.” The grip on her shoulder tightened a little. “And you’re sure you can’t do anything to help them?”

She shook her head. “Not without them here. I’m sorry.”

DiZ sighed. “I figured as much. I suppose you don’t have much to do until Riku returns with Roxas and Sora.”

“I guess not.”

He reached down to the white table and pushed around some of the drawings. Naminé flinched like a child in kindergarten being scolded by her teacher. He continued moving through the pages until he spotted a drawing of a cloaked figure surrounded by broken chains. Naminé flinched.

“Riku contacted me,” he said, pushing the drawing away. “He said Sora is very sick.”

“Sora and Roxas are connected,” she said quietly. “Since the process had already begun, they are chained together. They are not supposed to exist at the same time.” And the universe was trying to correct the paradox. She didn’t know how long they would last. The longer they were apart, the worse this was going to get.

He pointed to the drawing. “What is that?”

“A Memory Eater,” she admitted. “A being that survives on eating the bonds that or formed in our memories.” She sank lower, ashamed that she had hid this from them. “That’s all I know about these creatures. I fear that the person in the purple cloak might be one of them.”

DiZ shook his head. “Then what does he want, I wonder?”

Naminé focused intently on her clasped hands. She knew that the man in purple would be back… back for her.

“By the way, Donald and Goofy have awaken.”

She looked up sharply.

“I thought you’d like to know.”


	7. Dancing in the Darkness

> Chapter Seven: Dancing in the Darkness

_Even the moon shines at night…_

_~Alaasikaq~_

Axel’s legs felt like jelly as they trekked up the last leg of the mountain path. His arms trembled from the weight of Roxas’ unconscious body. Oswald had refused to stop, and Axel didn’t want to incur his wrath by taking Roxas elsewhere. He didn’t even know where he’d go. A hospital? That seemed like a poor course of action. The only thing he could think of would be taking Roxas back to the World that Never Was, but that would cause a whole slew of new problems. 

“Can we please stop?” Axel shouted over the wind. Maybe they could stop and wait for first light. Just because he was a Nobody, that didn’t mean he could keep going without rest. He wasn’t even sure how Oswald was managing to not show any signs of exhaustion, given how long their hike had been. 

“We’re almost there,” he shot back, his voice barely audible above the wind that carried it. 

Axel held Roxas tighter and kept going despite the fact that his knees threatened to buckle with every step. 

Eventually they came to a plateau on the mountain that seemed to be carved out of the stone itself. Oswald stopped at the entrance of the open cave and smiled. That was enough of a cue for Axel to collapse to his knees beside the rabbit, panting. Even though his arms wanted to just drop Roxas onto the stone floor, he lowered the younger Nobody gently down to the ground and checked to make sure the kid was still alive. 

_Well, as alive as he can be, I guess._

To his relief, it seemed the fever had broken. The small alcove was a relatively warm shelter from the wind, and he stayed on his knees while Oswald walked to the center of the area. Despite his extreme exhaustion, he was curious about why they were there. Oswald said they had to harvest magic here, but he didn’t know what that meant, exactly. 

Oswald looked to the sky and held out his hands. He summoned the bamboo paintbrush to his hand. Suddenly the sky lit up with ribbons of light. Axel’s eyes widened as he settled back on his heels to watch the lightshow as the ribbons danced. Before long, he could make out the shapes of animals moving through the light. 

“What is this?” he breathed. 

“Tradition.” Oswald laughed. A moment of genuine joy. “Ancestral Magic!” He leaned back and tossed the paintbrush into the light, cutting a river of darkness through it. The apparitions that wandered through the ribbons recoiled from the dark streak. It was a blight on the otherwise perfect scene. The paintbrush vanished in a blast of light and then reappeared in Oswald’s hand. It was no longer a simple bamboo brush. The handle had become white and smooth, carved with ornate shapes and patterns that entwined into themselves, forming a weaving chain. The bristles were now black and the ink that dripped from the tip was white.

Axel looked up at the broken river of light and watched as the aura healed itself, stitching up the tear. 

“Axel?”

He looked down to see Roxas staring up at the bright night sky. Something that he could only imagine was relief fluttered in his heartless chest. “Hey,” he whispered.

“It’s really pretty.” 

Axel smiled. It was. The blight had been repaired and he found himself happy that Roxas could see the magic without the stain of darkness on it. He got off his knees and laid down beside the kid to get a better view of the Aurora Borealis. He put his hands behind his head, thankful for the break. 

“Hey, Axel?” Roxas said, his voice quiet and weak. 

“Hm?”

“If we’re Nobodies, doesn’t that mean we can’t feel emotions?”

Axel frowned. “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

“Okay.” He sounded resigned and almost sad at the notion.

Axel sighed. “Do you remember anything else?” Had his sleep given him a little time to recover? Or had the magic of this place helped him?

“A girl,” Roxas whispered. 

Axel tensed. He had been hoping that was something that didn’t come back. “Do you remember a name?” 

“I do.” His voice sounded distant despite lying directly beside Axel. “Kairi.” 

_~New Urbem~_

“And they remember?” Riku asked. He was sitting in the Gummi Ship after bringing Sora to a hospital. The city that they found themselves in seemed nice enough, though Riku wasn’t entirely sure where they were. He would give DiZ the coordinates if he needed them. Riku was hoping that they wouldn’t be in this world for very long, but Sora’s temperature had been dangerously high. 

Kairi had been upset with him for leaving. She had wanted him to stay to make sure Sora woke up, but he couldn’t stand to be there. He had failed his best friend and now he didn’t know what was happening or how to fix it. Everything had just fallen apart so quickly. Once he had assumed, he could hold it all together; that he could keep everything from falling apart if he just learned to control it. 

He had been hilariously naive and stupid. 

“They remember everything,” Naminé said. He hardly heard her over the com-link. 

Riku smiled. That was the first good news he had gotten all day. “And King Mickey? Have you heard from him?”

“I haven’t.” 

That was less than ideal but he wasn’t sure what Mickey could do for them even if he were there. He might know more about this than anyone else, but if he had anything for them, Riku assumed the King would have made a beeline to where they were to offer up the information. 

“Alright, that’s fine,” he said. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t fine because it wouldn’t change anything. “Do you want to send them here or should I come get them?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about traveling with Donald and Goofy, but he figured it might help Sora to be surrounded by more of his friends. 

“I’ll come with them,” Naminé said.

“What?”

“DiZ is worried that the same people who kidnapped Roxas will come after me as well. He thinks it’ll be better if I’m moving around with you.”

Riku sighed. “The ship is going to be a bit crowded, but I think it’ll work out.” He hated being one step behind everything. It seemed like they weren’t making any progress and he wished he knew what the purple cloak wanted. If they knew his goal, then he would be easier to track down. “Alright. Naminé. I’ll give you the coordinates to where we are, and I’ll see you soon.”

“How’s Sora?” she asked. 

He had been hoping to sign off before that question came up, but she was too kind for her own good. “I don’t know.” 

“You don’t?” She sighed into the device. “Riku, are you alright?”

No. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’m just stressed.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Yes, it was. “I know, and it’s not yours either. We’ll fix this.” 

“We will!” Her voice was light, and he didn’t even hear a strain in it. She actually believed that they would make this all better. 

_And why wouldn’t we?_

“Well, I should probably go check on him.” He hung up before she could question anything, and he sent her the coordinates before stepping out into the city. Parking the ship was usually a problem, but this world seemed to be used to unidentified flying objects. That made things easier. 

He looked up at the skyscrapers and the warm light of dawn coming over the horizon. This was one of the nicer places he had been, but the beauty of it was lost on him as he made his way back towards the hospital. At least this place didn’t give him as many strange looks for walking around in a dark cloak. Though, passing by some people got him not bewildered looks, but looks of mistrust. He supposed that was to be expected for walking about in the dark hooded cloak, but it was still a little unnerving. 

As he stepped into the brightly lit waiting room of the emergency room, he spotted Kairi sitting in the corner with her head bowed and her hands clasped. He felt guilty about bringing her here. In all, he knew Sora would have preferred that she had stayed safe on Destiny Island, away from all the crazy stuff that was happening. Riku would have preferred all three of them to still be blissfully unaware of the outside worlds, playing without a care on the beach. 

Those days were gone, though, replaced with whatever their lives had turned in to. 

He steeled himself and walked to Kairi, stopping a few feet in front of her. “How is he?”

“I think they have him ‘on ice’,” she said without looking up. “But the fever was reducing last time I checked.”

He shifted his weight. “That’s good.” He put his hands behind his back and looked down at the ground. “Kairi, I--”

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said, cutting off his apology. 

He looked up sharply. She was staring at him intensely. “I…” He sighed. He couldn’t blame her. She didn’t _have_ to be here. “Yeah, I know it’s hard. Do you… Do you want me to take you back home?”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to abandon him, or you, but…” She slumped down to put her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. “I just feel like I’m making it worse.” 

He hung his head without moving. 

“Take off the hood, Riku.”

“Kairi… it’s not that simple.” 

“It’s a hood,” she snapped. 

He flinched back. Maybe to her it was. Coming to her the way he was now had been a bit of a shock, but she had settled down after he had proven exactly who he was. He was still himself. That didn’t mean he wasn’t ashamed of it, though. He had done this to himself to get Roxas back and it now just felt like a big joke with only the cosmos laughing. 

“I can take you back if you want.”

“I don’t,” she returned harshly. “I want to help him, but I don’t know how.”

“I don’t either,” he admitted. “We need to track down that kid that was taken from us.”

“Who was he?” she asked.

Riku sighed. He had figured that question would come up eventually, even if he didn’t want to have to explain that line of thinking. He supposed that if Naminé was coming, then he’d have to explain what Nobodies were, but he had been hoping to keep her as innocent as possible for as long as he could. 

“He’s just a kid,” he muttered, realizing now how much that was true. The boy was barely pushing a year in age, despite his appearance. Naminé had assured him that “Roxas” wouldn’t die, given that Nobodies weren’t truly alive, and DiZ had basically said they were abominations that didn’t have the right to anything, let alone life. 

“Seems to me like he’s more than _just_ anything.” 

He chuckled dryly. “I guess that’s true.” He crossed his arms. “Right now, I think we just need to be patient. He’s going through a lot, whether or not he knows it. We have to be the strong ones for him.” _And if we can’t, then we’re going to lose him._ Even thinking that sent a sharp pain to his heart. He didn’t know if he should ask her, but he looked up. “Can you do that?”

She lifted her head and met his eyes despite the hood still shrouding his face. “I’d do anything for him.” 

Riku held her gaze solemnly. _Even kill?_ he asked silently. She didn’t know what her promise to do anything meant. He smiled and prayed that it didn’t look as forced as it felt. 

And then he remembered the shadow covering his face and the smile melted away. She couldn’t see it anyway.


	8. Let Me In

> Chapter Eight: Let Me In

_ I wasn’t seduced by Darkness. It is not an all-corrupting force. _

_ Light and Dark exist in tandem. _

_ Balance. All I wanted was balance.  _

_ ~New Urbem~ _

Naminé stepped out of the Dark Corridor into the imposing city beyond. She held up her hand to block her view of the sunlight. She had been to places like The World that Never Was, but she had never been in such a bustling city. Twilight Town was a sleepy village, Castle Oblivion was cold, and the World that Never Was was dead. This city was alive and bustling with people that took nary a glance at the pale girl in her simple white dress. She might have felt, and looked, out of place, but her weirdness was overshadowed by the man-sized dog and child-sized duck who stepped out of the portal behind her. 

“Gawrsh,” Goofy said, smiling. “It sure is pretty here!” 

Donald crossed his arms. “Aw, who cares? You’ve seen one city and you’ve seen them all.”

“This way,” Naminé whispered, ducking out of the alleyway and onto the busy sidewalk. Most people who took heed of them gave them a wide berth, but most people were too preoccupied to give them a second glance. They didn’t remember her and she was glad for that. She had wondered what it would be like seeing them all again, but she also felt like it was better this way. 

“Excuse me, miss,” Goofy said, “but is Sora alright?”

_ Not really,  _ she thought without wanting to voice it. They had been given a basic rundown of the situation, but the major details had been left out to avoid panic. In truth, she hadn’t spoken with Riku since the call in the ship so she didn’t have any updates on the situation. She bowed her head. “I’m not sure,” she said. “Riku told me that the situation is in flux.”

“Riku’s here?” Donald asked.

“Yes.” Naminé said softly, wringing her hands. “Kairi as well.” 

“Oh! Sora’s probably real happy about that!” Goofy exclaimed. 

“I’m sure he would be,” she said so quietly that she knew they hadn’t heard her. She sighed. “Listen, I need you to prepare yourself.” Last she had heard, Sora was very ill. 

The two fell silent and the trio walked in that silence, moving towards the hospital. By the time they made it, the sun was nearing the top of its arc and when they stepped inside, the sterile environment reminded her of Castle Oblivion. She had never been to a hospital before. 

As she stepped up to what Riku had called a “nurse’s station,” the man sitting behind the desk looked up and his eyes widened before he shook his head. “Supers,” he murmured under his breath. “How can I help you?” Then he paused a moment. “Let me guess. You’re with that man in the dark cloak and that girl, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Sure are!” Goofy said. 

“I figured.” He sounded tired. “Room 213.”

“Thank you.” Naminé bowed slightly and turned, heading towards the staircase leading to the second floor. The nurse at the station watched them go with a scoff. 

When they got to the room, Naminé opened the door and was expecting to find Sora pale and ill, lying on the bed in pain. Instead, she was greeted with Sora sitting up in the bed, smiling and talking with Kairi. The sound of the door opening stopped their conversation and they looked towards the strange trio.

Sora’s smile faded to a confused frown before turning to Riku, who was sulking in the corner. “I’m assuming this is normal?”

“As normal as it’ll ever be,” Riku muttered with a dismissive wave of his hand. “They’re your other friends.”

Goofy stepped forward. “Ya don’t remember us?”

Sora shook his head. “Sorry.” 

“Shucks... “ 

Naminé looked over at Riku as the trio reunited as much as they could and became acquainted with Kairi. Naminé went to stand beside Riku. “He’s looking better.”

“His fever broke an hour ago and suddenly he’s up and talking.” Riku crossed his arms. “The whole thing was bizarre, but he remembered Roxas’ name.” 

Naminé looked up to Riku sharply, her eyes widening. “He’s never heard that name. He can’t remember something that he never knew to begin with.” She leaned against the wall and looked back down at the ground. “What else?”

“Nothing. No childhood memories. Not even the life we gave Roxas, or anything else about him.” He looked down at her. “We need to fix this.”

“I know,” she whispered. “But I can’t without Roxas.”

“Then we need to find him.” 

That was easier said than done. If finding Roxas was their only hurdle, then they’d be fine, but it wasn’t. Finding him was probably the easiest part. Riku had put everything he had into beating Roxas, and that hadn’t ended well. Even without his memories, he was still dangerous. “I’ll get on that.”

_ ~New Urbem~ _

Sora sat on the bed, staring at Goofy and Donald while they talked to Kairi… about him. It was a weird feeling and his frown deepened as he realized that Kairi was smiling for the first time. She laughed at their jokes and anecdotes. Stories about his, apparent, life passed over his head and brought joy to his friends while it only made him upset about the things that he had lost. Whenever they turned to him and tried to draw him into the conversation, he just smiled back at them and nodded, unsure of how else to react to it. 

Finally, the dog man, Goofy, turned to him and offered him a warm smile. “How are ya feelin’?” he asked. There was kindness in the dog’s voice without any of the underlying pity that Riku and Kairi had been giving him. Maybe that was because, according to them, he hadn’t known Goofy and Donald for as long and they didn’t know the Sora that was gone as well. 

“I’m doing okay,” he said, and he was. The dream that he had experienced pushed through his mind. Who had been all those people in that vision? “Do you know who Roxas is?” he asked. Riku hadn’t seemed to want to answer his question when he had asked about the name. He couldn’t bring up an image of who that was.

“Roxas?” Goofy repeated, and then turned to Donald. “We don’t know a Roxas, do we?”

The duck shook his head. “No one like that,” he said. “Do you remember him?” 

Sora hung his head. “No.” It was weird to have a name without a face to go with it. “Kairi?” 

“Sorry,” she said with a patient smile.

It was all frustrating. All these people in this room knew him better than he knew himself and he hated that feeling. The conversation stalled a moment before picking back up. His head was beginning to hurt. At first he thought that maybe all the noise was bothering him and he tried to ignore the feeling of someone trying to drill a hole in the back of his head. 

A quiet, high-pitched sound started but no one else in the room seemed to be hearing it. They continued talking even as the sound grew greater in intensity. He gritted his teeth and leaned forward to hold his face in his hand. The sound was overbearing. 

“Sora?” 

He squeezed his eyes shut but darkness didn’t greet him. Instead, images flashed before him in the dark. A beautiful sunset. A clock tower. Ice cream. Fire.

A girl with black hair.

_ “Roxas? Are you feeling okay?” _

There was lighthearted laughter coming from his left as a voice spoke from his right.

_ “Stop teasing him, Hayner! He looks like he’s not feeling well.”  _

He lifted his face and opened his eyes. The sound was so loud that he could barely hear. He stared at the brunette who had spoken. She looked at him, her head cocked. 

_ “Who are you?”  _ he asked. 

Her face was too blurry to make out an expression and the sound was too overbearing to hear the answer. 

_ “Who is Roxas?”  _ he asked. 

The noise increased. Static filled his vision, obscuring the girl from view. She stood and waved before turning to leave.

_ “Wait! Who are you?”  _ he shouted. _“Where are we?”_ She was walking away. _“Please!”_ The sound reached a fever pitch and voices mingled with it, distorted and unsettling. Growing in intensity until he felt he might pass out. “Stop!” She kept walking. “Tell me who you are!” He reached out his hand and a gripped the hilt of the weapon that appeared, he swung it, pointing in the direction of where the girl had been. “What’s happening?” he demanded.

Suddenly the world went back to normal. Silence engulfed him. He was standing on the hospital bed with the Keyblade pointed shakily in Riku’s direction. Everyone else stood in silence, unwilling to move. Sora’s hand trembled and his face was distorted in a look of rage, fear, and sadness. 

Riku pushed off the wall, holding his hands out, and he moved slowly towards Sora. “Everyone leave,” he said without taking his eyes off the boy. The room was vacated with as little discussion as possible. “Easy. Put down the Keyblade,” he said slowly in a calm voice. 

Sora’s breathing was heavy, and he made no move to comply. “What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know,” Riku admitted, stopping his advance towards the bed. “But I do know that you’re scared, and you have every right to be. Please… put the Keyblade down.”

Sora threw the weapon. Riku didn’t even flinch as it flew past him, barely missing his head. It clattered to the floor and vanished in a flash of light, only to reappear in Sora’s hand. He yanked his hand back, discarding the Blade onto the bed. He stared down at the skeleton key and his stomach dropped. He crumpled to his knees on the bed and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know who I am!” 

Riku stepped forward and put his hands on Sora’s shoulders while he cried in fear, confusion, and frustration. He let Sora cry for a few minutes before speaking again. “You’re my best friend,” he whispered. “And you are either the bravest or the dumbest person I have ever known.” His voice cracked and he chuckled sadly. “Because I’ve never met someone so persistent and boneheaded as you are.” He paused and patted Sora on the back. “You are the Light.”

Sora closed his eyes tightly, choking on his own sobs. The Light? What did that mean? 

“ _That’s_ who are you, Sora, and just because you’ve lost those memories, that doesn’t mean you’re a different person. You’re still my best friend.”

Sora stayed staring at the bed without moving. It was the first time someone had spoken to him with such a quiet, resolute tone. The first time someone had truly been able to convince him that they believed he was still the person they all knew and loved. The first time, for a brief moment, that he _felt_ like Sora.

“Thank you,” he whispered. He rocked back to sit on his heels, and he looked down at his hands.

“Don’t mention it,” Riku said, and then he paused a moment before laughing. “Really, don’t. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.” He put a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Are you feeling better?”

“I think so.” And that wasn’t a lie. He _was_ starting to find some sort of relief. “Can you go tell the others not to worry?”

Riku nodded. “Sure thing, bud.” He patted Sora’s shoulder and walked out of the room, leaving Sora in the silence of the room. 

He looked down at his hands and clenched them into fists, flexing them. Those memories flashed through his mind again. A dull pain still throbbed between his eyes and he stumbled out of the bed, heading towards the bathroom. 

Just as he crossed the threshold into the bathroom, his stomach lurched and he fell forward, gripping the sides of the sink for support. The pain in his head flared again. He lifted his head to look at himself in the mirror. A shadow version of himself stared back at him with round yellow eyes. He cocked his head. 

_ You are afraid…  _ a voice whispered.

Sora stared at the shadow in the mirror and reached up a tentative hand towards it. The reflection mirrored his movement. 

_ There’s no need to fear. _

Sora put his hand on the mirror.

His shadowy reflection smiled. A wide, toothy grin. 

Sora yanked his hand back with a surprised yelp as the light in the bathroom burned out, plunging him into darkness.


	9. I am Done with my Graceless Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, readers! I know I haven't talked much, but I really hope you guys are enjoying this story! It has been a blast to write!

> Chapter Nine: I am Done with my Graceless Heart

_ The power of memories is unparalleled. Without our experiences, who are we? _

_ And if no one remembers you as you remember yourself, then what is the right identity? _

_ ~New Urbem~ _

Riku stepped out of the hospital room but he couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief. He had managed to calm Sora down, but he wasn’t sure how much he had actually done. They were putting bandages on bullet holes and he didn’t know how long this was going to last. Sora was falling apart at the seams and Riku felt powerless to stop it. 

He kept his strong expression as his eyes scanned the gathered group of various species. Donald and Goofy looked worried, Naminé looked ashamed, and Kairi was squatting down on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, and crying softly. 

Riku sighed and looked over at Donald and Goofy. He needed to deal with Kairi, but he didn’t know how. Was he supposed to try and make her feel better about this? He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to feel better. This wasn’t right and they shouldn’t be acting like it was. 

First things first, though, he needed to get the others up to speed. He walked over to them. 

“What happened in there?” Donald asked. 

Riku sighed. “He’s just confused and scared.” What else was he supposed to say? That Sora was going crazy? It felt like he was. 

“How do we help him?”

“Right now, we need to find a kid who was taken from us. That’s the only thing that can help Sora now.” He would explain and deal with the memory eater later. There wasn’t much to tell regardless. “The only problem is that we have no idea where that kid is.” And going blindly from world to world would help no one. 

“So,” Goofy asked, “what do we do?”

Riku hung his head. He didn’t know. There was no easy answer. He knew what had to be done, but he didn’t know how to do it. “Naminé will fill you in on the rest,” he said quietly and then he went to Kairi before the two could ask him any more questions he couldn’t answer. 

He squatted in front of her. “Hey,” he whispered. 

She didn’t acknowledge him. 

“Look, what happened in there--”

“That’s not Sora,” Kairi snapped, her voice cracking. 

Riku flinched back. “Kairi…”

“Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s just not the same person anymore.”

He sighed. It was harsh, but he could hardly blame her for feeling that way. The outburst had been nerve-wracking. Sora wasn’t usually so violent and volatile. He couldn’t really be faulted though, given the circumstances. “He’s scared. Wouldn’t you be?” 

Scared didn’t begin to explain it, though. Sora had clearly been talking to someone who wasn’t there. He had been seeing something other than the hospital room. Whatever was happening, it was getting worse. 

“I guess,” she whispered, hugging her knees tightly. “I want to be strong for him.”

“And you will be.” The words were empty and pointless, but he said them anyway. What else was he supposed to tell her? 

“Uh, Mr. Riku?” 

He turned. Goofy, Donald, and Naminé were standing behind them at a respectable distance. 

“What’s up?”

“We have a plan,” Naminé murmured quietly. 

Riku blinked. Already?

Goofy nodded. “Miss Naminé here told us that we’re hunting down somethin’ that eats memories. Well, we figure that there creature might go someplace where memories hold real power.”

“Castle Oblivion?” Riku suggested.

Naminé shook her head. “More powerful than that…”

_ ~The Land of the Dead~ _

Roxas stood gawking at the colors that danced in front of him. He looked up at the buildings that were stacked impossibly high, vanishing in the haze of the sky. When he kicked, a plume of bright orange flowers that seemed to glow fluttered in a wind that didn’t seem to exist. He had never seen something so vibrant in his life. Or… if what Axel had told him was true, maybe he had but he couldn’t remember it. 

Axel was watching him as he bent down to rub his hands through the soft petals that made up the bridge they were walking on. Roxas looked up at him and offered him a smile, only to have it rejected as Axel turned his sugar skull painted face away from Roxas. He stood with a few stray petals in his hands, watching Axel recede towards the city gates. 

“Is he mad at me?” he asked Oswald as the rabbit came up behind him.

“He doesn’t have a heart,” he pointed out without stopping. 

Roxas watched them go before looking down at his skeleton painted hands. No heart? What did that really mean? He ran his finger over the orange petal. The texture was soft like fine silk and the smell was sweet. Did not having a heart mean that he couldn’t enjoy those things? That he couldn’t look up in awe and wonder at the world they were in?

“Maybe I’m not the Roxas he knew,” Roxas suggested. 

Oswald’s ears twitched. “Oh?” 

“I mean, you said I’m a Nobody, and then you said that means I had no heart, but I _feel_ like I have one.” 

“Well, the mind can be fooled into thinking that it has what the body lacks. Have you ever heard of Phantom Limb Syndrome?” 

“I don’t think that applies here,” Roxas murmured. He looked over at Axel, who seemed to be pretending that he had no interest in the conversation. “If I feel like I have a heart, and can go through all the motions, then who’s to say I don’t have one?”

Oswald shrugged. 

“And if it’s impossible for me to have one, then I’m not Roxas.”

“You are, though,” Axel snapped before Oswald could answer. 

“How do you know?” 

Axel didn’t answer. Instead, he walked a little faster in a huff.

Roxas narrowed his eyes. “You know, for someone without a heart, you sure are moody!” 

Axel stopped and bowed his head. His clenched fists trembled like he was trying to hold something back. 

“Now’s not the time for this,” Oswald said. Axel relaxed slightly, but he didn’t seem to be completely calm. 

“Where are we anyway?” Axel snapped. 

“The Land of the Dead.” 

Roxas blinked. “Land of the--- Are we dead?”

“Not yet.” Oswald started again, leaving Axel and Roxas no choice but to follow. Roxas found himself having to jog a little to keep up with Axel’s long strides. 

“Look, if I hurt your feelings--”

Axel turned a hard glare at Roxas, stopping his words. “I don’t have any to hurt, remember?”

Roxas stopped, letting Axel get a few steps ahead of him. “Come on! Don’t be like that.” 

Axel spun around. “How do you _want_ me to be, Roxas? How am I supposed to act around you? Tell me and I’ll do it!”

He narrowed his eyes. Axel’s outburst seemed to be coming out of nowhere and he wasn’t sure what he had done wrong. “What do you want from me, Axel?” 

“I want my friend back!” He turned on his heels and marched after Oswald, leaving Roxas alone on the bridge while skeletal people walked past him without acknowledging him. 

Roxas looked down at the marigold bridge. His face burned and his eyes stung. Could Nobodies cry? 

_ Is that what I am?  _ He looked up, finding Axel’s bright red hair and black clothes in the crowd. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He didn’t want to be the cause of their pain, but he _couldn’t_ be what Axel wanted. He still wasn’t sure he was who they were looking for. He had memories; a life that he wanted to get back to. How was he supposed to just accept that all that was a lie?

He started across the bridge towards the city, but instead of catching up to Axel and Oswald, he ducked into the crowd and lost himself in the sea of faces. 

Once he was sure that Axel and Oswald hadn’t noticed he was gone or at least weren’t following him, he broke off and headed deeper into the colorful city. Everyone here was a skeleton, which he supposed explained the face paint they had been given upon entering this world. It helped blend them in. Which, he supposed, was a good thing as no one seemed to pay him any mind as they went about their business doing whatever the denizens of this world did. 

He found an alleyway and sat down on the steps, burying his head in his hands. He wanted to be back in Twilight Town. It felt like a lifetime ago, but he knew it had only been less than twenty-four hours. 

Something tugged at his pant leg and he flinched back, yanking the fabric out of the jaws of a hairless dog. He winced at the sound of ripping and irrational anger washed over him. These clothes were a remnant of the life he desperately wanted to be real. “Get!” he shouted at the mutt, shooing it away. “Leave me alone!”

The animal whimpered and ducked away from Roxas but didn’t flee like it had been asked to. 

“I said get out of here!”

“Dante!” a voice called. A skeleton in ragged and worn clothing ran past the entrance of the alleyway before pausing and circling back. “There you are, you silly mutt!” the specter snapped. “I told you to find a living boy! _Living!”_ He motioned to Roxas. “Not---” he paused, finally seeing Roxas for the first time. “Well, would you look at that? You _are_ alive!” The skeleton laughed. “I thought this was Day of the Dead, not Day of the Living!” He shooed the hairless dog away from Roxas. “Are you lost?” 

“Yeah,” Roxas muttered, realizing how true that was. He grabbed his torn pant leg and ran the frayed fabric between his fingers. “You should keep your mangy mutt on a leash!”

The skeleton smiled; something Roxas hadn’t known was possible. “Dante isn’t my dog. He belongs to that other living boy I’m looking for.” He squatted in front of Roxas. “What’s a living, breathing person doing in the Land of the Dead?”

“Memories,” Roxas murmured. He wasn’t sure what Oswald wanted with the memories here. They had already gathered magic and this detour seemed like a waste of time. 

“Memories, huh?” He held out his boney hand. “Name’s Hector. What’s yours?” 

Roxas took the outstretched limb and grasped the bones beneath his skin. “Roxas.” His voice wavered. Was that really who he was?

The smile on Hector’s face faltered. “You don’t seem too sure about that.”

“I’m not.”

The smile vanished entirely. “Well then.” He stood and offered to help Roxas up. “You shouldn’t be here, you know. Living people don’t belong in the Land of the Dead.” 

Roxas took the offer and stood. “I know.” 

“Well, I can’t rightly leave you to your own devices.” He stretched. “Since apparently I’m babysitting living kids tonight, wanna help me find who I’m looking for?” 

“Sure.” He supposed trailing along with this ghost was better than wandering aimlessly through this colorful place. He followed after Hector as they stepped out of the alley and into the flow of traffic. Now that he had an escort, the other citizens paid even less attention to him. The dog, Dante, bounded ahead of them with his nose pressed firmly to the ground. 

“So, who’s this kid that you’re looking for?” It seemed odd that there was another living person in the Land of the Dead. Or it might just be that Hector was looking for Axel and Oswald, given the circumstance. 

“His name’s Miguel, and I’m helping him so he can help me.” Hector reached into his shirt pocket and produced an old worn-out photo, handing it to Roxas. “I need this photo to make it back to the Land of the Living.” 

Roxas took the keepsake gingerly. It seemed to be a picture of the skeleton man when he was alive. He compared the two faces and nodded, handing it back. “Why’s that?”

“Well, you see, I can’t cross into the Land of the Living today if my picture isn’t on an _ofrenda._ ”

“Are you trying to come back to life?” Roxas asked, confused. 

Hector laughed. “No, nothing like that. I’d just like to see my family once more, and today is the only day of the year where we can cross back over.”

He seemed to be in high spirits, but Roxas heard a hint of sadness in Hector’s voice. “Why not just wait until next year?”

All attempts at being jovial vanished from Hector’s voice and face. “I’m afraid I won’t last another year.” He patted the pocket of his shirt solemnly. “Once the last person who remembers me forgets, I will have my final death.” 

“And that last person…?”

“...is forgetting,” Hector said with a grave nod. “That living child is my only hope to see my daughter one last time.”

Roxas frowned and put his hand in his pockets, feeling the marigold petal he was keeping there. So, that was why Oswald had brought him here. There were people in this world on the cusp of being Forgotten. “What happens if no one remembers you?”

“Then you cease existing.”

Roxas clenched his fists. Was that what Oswald was trying to avoid? If he died now, while no one remembered him, would he be gone forever? _But Axel and I will remember him,_ he tried to argue. Did that count for something? Or did Oswald not want that to be the only lasting memory of him? What had he been like before being shunned and lost in the Dark? 

“What if the memory of you is distorted?”

Hector shrugged. “I guess everyone remembers others differently. Look back in a few years to this conversation and you won’t remember exactly how it happened.”

Roxas perked up. “But I _will_ remember it! That means you won’t be forgotten!”

“It doesn’t work like that. You met me here. Once I fade away, I will be nothing but a blurry image in your mind that will disappear in time.”

The idea that someone could just cease to exist because no one remembered them left a hollow feeling in the pit of Roxas’ stomach. He put his hand on his belly and looked down at the cobblestone walkway as he sidestepped other ghosts. He suddenly felt even more out of place here. That life that he had thought he had lived would be gone the moment he forgot about it. If the Hayner and Pence and Olette he knew weren’t real, then that version of himself… that normal, happy, pensive kid he had been in Twilight Town, would die once his real memories returned. Those versions of his friends would vanish. Cease existing as if they had never been. 

He shook his head, trying to stop the spiraling existential thoughts that plagued his mind. “How’d you lose Miguel anyway?” Roxas asked, trying to stave off his sinking feelings. 

“He and I got into an argument,” Hector muttered. “I yelled at him, but he _knows_ how little time I have left, and he’s wasting it!” 


	10. The Bridges Are Burning

> Chapter 10: The Bridges Are Burning

Roxas followed Hector, keeping his hands firmly in his pockets and his head down. Dante danced around them every once in a while between having his nose firmly pressed to the ground. The Land of the Dead was a colorful and, ironically enough, lively place. The citizens seemed friendly enough, though if Roxas had tried to talk to any of them, Hector would quickly shoo him forward. 

“Keep your head down,” he hissed as he pushed Roxas away from a merchant stand. 

Roxas looked back at the wares being sold before falling in line with Hector. “Why are we being so secretive?”

“Because,” Hector said, waving his hands. “This is the Land of the _Dead,_ and last time I checked you are very much alive. You don’t belong here.”

Roxas didn’t know how to answer that. It seemed like he didn’t belong anywhere. He thought he had some place he could call home, but that had apparently been a lie. He wanted to go back to that fabricated life, though. It was better than whatever the truth was. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, bowing his head as they walked.

“You don’t talk much,” Hector said.

Roxas shrugged without looking up. It was probably better this way.

“So, when I asked you your name earlier, you said you weren’t really sure about it. Why’s that?”

“Because I don’t know who I am,” Roxas said with a voice barely above a whisper. “I thought I did, but I’m not so sure anymore.” When Hector took a few moments of silence, Roxas dared a peek at the skeleton. He was watching Roxas with a sad look. “What?”

“I bet that’s hard, is all,” Hector said. He put his hand on Roxas’ shoulder. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Roxas murmured. “I had a life and now I’m being told that I’m walking around with all these fabricated memories in my head.” He tapped his chest where his heart should be. “If I’ve based who I am on those false memories, then I don’t know who I am.”

Hector frowned and he looked to be having trouble processing Roxas’ story. “Why did they do that?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. I guess it’s because my Somebody needed me or whatever.” That probably didn’t make any sense to Hector. Roxas didn’t blame him for that, though. Even he was struggling to understand his own situation. Axel was pulling him in one direction, and Oswald wanted him to do something that he didn’t understand. And his heart was tugging him back to the life he so desperately wanted to be real.

Heart… He shook his head with a snort. According to literally everyone else, he didn’t have a heart, so how could it be pulling him in any direction?

“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I hope it all goes well for you,” Hector said, pulling Roxas from his sinking thoughts.

“So do I,” he mumbled. He looked up at Hector. “Do you have a heart?”

Hector blinked. “I… uh… That’s an interesting question.” He patted his chest. “I guess I don’t have a beating one, like the organ.” He lifted his shirt, revealing the empty ribcage beneath. “Being dead and all that, but I don’t think that’s what you meant.” He put his shirt down slowly.

Roxas shook his head.

“I don’t really know. I guess I do.”

“How do you know?”

Hector shrugged. “I dunno. I feel empathy for your situation, and I’m worried about Miguel, and I’m scared that I might be forgotten before I can see my daughter again.”

“Is that what a heart is?” Roxas asked.

“I would imagine.”

Then why did they say he didn’t have one? He felt like he did. “Do you think I have a heart?”

“I don’t see why not.”

That didn’t make Roxas feel better. He wanted to know the truth, not guesses. It probably wasn’t fair of him to drill Hector on these questions. The man didn’t know the answers. No one seemed to be able to tell him what he needed to know. “I guess… They told me that I don’t have a heart, and that I’m something called a Nobody.”

Hector glanced over at Roxas. “Well, do you feel like you have one?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. He didn’t know what one felt like. It seemed that Oswald was convinced that he had been fooled into thinking he had the capacity for feeling. And then there was Axel. Roxas couldn’t imagine someone who had such mood swings not having the ability to feel. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. You probably don’t want to hear about this.”

Hector looked up at the sky with something resembling a sigh. “You know, I think I get it.” He paused and then shook his head. “Well, not completely, but I understand why you seem so upset. I don’t think I’d like it if someone were telling me that I didn’t have a heart or whatever. That must be frustrating, especially when you feel like you do.”

“Yeah… something like that.” He shook his head. “So, about this kid we’re looking for. Why’s he here? You said this was the Land of the Dead.”

“Cursed, I think,” Hector said. “Apparently he stole some guitar from a grave and now he’s looking for a family member to give him a blessing so he can go home.” He put his hands behind his head. “But it seems we are both running out of time. Living people can’t be here past the Day of the Dead, or they will remain here forever.”

“They die, essentially?”

“In so many words.”

“We’re on a time limit?”

Hector nodded. “Both Miguel and I are running out of time, but he has a family that is accessible. The boy’s risking his life, and mine, to get the blessing from the _right_ family member.”

Roxas eyed the skeleton for a moment. Did he care about Miguel, or just himself? And why did it matter either way? It sounded like the kid was being selfish and reckless. _But aren’t I being the same way?_ He thought. Was it selfish and reckless to want the life that he had been fooled into believing was real? He crossed his arms. “I guess we need to find him, then, for both your sakes.”

Hector smiled. “That’s the plan.”

_~The Land of the Dead~_

In all the strange worlds that he had been to, Riku had never seen one quite as strangely beautiful as this one. The colors and the bridges made of petals were captivating. Skeletons walked around him. His first instinct was to whip out his Keyblade. Usually, the undead weren’t his allies but he quickly realized that these were the citizens of this world. _I suppose this is the Land of the Dead,_ he thought.

Naminé hadn’t been certain that this was where the memory eater would go but it was the best lead they had at that moment. He didn’t want to think that this trip was going to end up being a waste of time, but he supposed anything they were doing wasn’t a waste. They needed to be doing just about anything to fix this. Sora’s condition was deteriorating and Naminé had given him the endgame of his condition.

“Sora and Roxas are in a delicate tangled mess right now,” she had told him. “I don’t know everything about it, but their connection might be the thing that’s hurting Sora. His heart has both his memories and Roxas’, and it doesn’t know what to do with them.”

Riku wasn’t sure he understood, but it looked like she didn’t fully understand either. “So, what’s going to happen to him?” he had asked.

“His heart is in turmoil. Memories are how we base so many things about our lives. Unless we can restore Roxas and Sora, and soon, his heart will be broken beyond repair.”

Riku shook his head. He wouldn’t let that happen. He _couldn’t._ Sora would cross to the ends of the worlds for him and Riku knew he had to do at least that to make sure his friend was safe.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t see the person running towards him until the kid slammed into his chest and stumbled back, falling to the cobblestone path. Riku stumbled a little but managed to stay upright. The kid on the ground wore a red hooded jacket and a guitar on his back. “Sorry!” Riku said, offering a hand to the boy.

The boy took it and Riku was surprised to feel skin on the hand. Everyone he had seen in this world thus far had been skeletons, but this kid was human.

“Are you…”

“Alive?” the boy asked, staring up at Riku.

Riku nodded. “Yeah… I thought this was the Land of the Dead.”

The boy shifted his guitar to lie better on his shoulder with a shrug. “It is,” he said and pushed past Riku, continuing in the same direction.

Riku spun. “Hey! Where are you going?”

“To find my great-great-grandfather!” the boy snapped back, walking faster.

Riku watched him with narrowed eyes. It was probably better for him if he just let the kid go. _But he’s a living child in the Land of the Dead,_ he thought. Maybe this kid had seen other living people here. “Hey, kid! Wait up!” He jogged after the receding boy. “I’ve got some questions for you.”

The boy didn’t slow his pace and Riku matched it. “What do you want?” the boy asked.

“Have you seen any other living people roaming around here?”

“This isn’t really a place for the living,” he grumbled.

“Yes, I know that. What I’d also like to know is if anyone else is misplaced here.”

The boy shrugged. “No idea.”

Riku scowled. This kid was annoying. “Why the rush?”

“Because this place isn’t meant for us!” the kid snapped. “If I don’t receive a blessing from my great-great-grandfather by sunrise, then I can’t go back to the Land of the Living and I’ll be stuck here!”

Riku paused in his walking, cocking his head. This kid was going to die? And soon? _Just leave it alone,_ he argued. _There’s no reason to get involved in this. Sora’s running out of time._ Riku rolled his eyes at his own thoughts because he knew the retort Sora would give him if he had tried to use that reasoning.

_So is this kid._

“Damn it…” he grumbled and jogged after the boy. “I’ll help you find your grandfather.”

The boy stopped walking and looked back at Riku. “You will?”

“I can’t in good conscious leave you to wander this place alone when your life is in danger.”

He narrowed his eyes at Riku suspiciously, but then he shrugged and started down his path. Riku followed after him. Hopefully, this little detour wouldn’t take more than an hour or so.

“Name’s Riku, by the way.”

“Miguel,” the boy said without offering a hand. Riku assumed that he was on edge due to his current situation. “Those other people you’re looking for. Why did you come here to get them? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”

 _I could ask you the same question,_ Riku thought but refrained from biting back. “They have something I need,” he said instead. Was that the right term? _Something?_ What he needed was Roxas. Was it right of him to think like that? He had seen the Nobodies and their capacity for simulated emotional responses that were, more often than not, far more real than anything Riku had seen in creatures _with_ hearts. Axel had been pretty adamant that they didn’t have the capacity for feelings, yet he had risked his existence to bring Roxas home. Riku was pretty sure that this little mission of Axel’s had nothing to do with what the Organization wanted. He had gone rogue and could someone without feelings even _go_ rogue?

“What do you need?”

“His name is Roxas,” Riku said quietly. “That’s wha-… _who_ I need.”


End file.
